
Glass 
Book 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 







u 










The Eternal Epistle 



SERMONS ON THE EPISTLES FOR 
THE CHURCH YEAR 



BY 



REV. S. P. LONG, A. M 

Pastor of First Lutheran Church, 
Mansfield, Ohio 



MISS FLORENCE MAY WELTY 

REPORTER 



Oh God, give us a faith thai will not waver, worry, whine nor wrangle, 
but a faith that will watch, wo'>-k, wait, win and const ut.tlv warble Amen! '' 



Columbus, Ohio: 

THE F. J. HEER PRINTING CO 

1908 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

JAN 5 1909 

CLASS O^ XXc, No. 



■ E^bG 



COPYRI-GHT 1908 

BY 

REV. S. P. LONG. A. M. 



PREFACE. 



^*W ^ EAVEN and earth shall pass away, but My Word shall not pass 
I ^ away" said Jesus. The same Providence that preserved the 
^ ^ Gospels for us will also preserve the Epistles. God's Epistles 
are Eternal Epistles^ and the same Providence that called forth "The 
Great Gospel" has also prepared for the press by the same tongue and 
hand this volume of sermons for the Church Year. Like "The Great 
Gospel," these sermons were delivered by a busy pastor to a large con- 
gregation from Sunday to Sunday and reported verbatim by his re- 
porter who herself has left a lucrative position to prepare herself foi* a 
greater work for her Master. The author is so deeply impressed with 
God's wonderful leading that he will quote for the comfort of others the 
following poem as a gem which will make at least one page of this book 
valuable : 

SOMETIME. 

Sometime, when all life's lessons have been learned, 

And sun and stars forevermore have set, 
The things which our weak judgment here have spurned, 

The things o'er which we grieved with lashes wet. 
Will flash before us, out of life's dark night. 

As stars shine more in deeper tints of blue. 
And we shall see how all God's plans were -right, 

And how what seemed reproof was love most true. 

And we shall see liow, while wc frown and sigh, 

God's plans go on as best for you and me ; 
How, when we called, He* heeded not our cry, 

Because His wisdom to the end could see. 
And even as prudent parents disallow 

Too much of sweet to craving babyhood. 
So God, perhaps, is keeping from us now, 

Life's sweetest things, because it seemeth good. 

And if, sometimes, commijigled witli life's wine. 

We find the wormwood and rebel and shrink. 
Be sure a wiser hand than yours or mine. 

Pours out this potion for our lips to drink. '. 

3 



PREFACE. 

And if some friend we love is lying low, 

^ Where human kisses cannot reach his face, 
Oh, do not blame the loving Father so, 

But wear your sorrow with obedient grace. 

And you shall shortly know that lengthened breath 

Is not the sweetest gift God sends His friend. 
And that sometimes the sable pall of death 

Conceals the fairest boon His love can send. 
If we could push ajar the gates of life 

And stand within, and all God's workings see, 
We could interpret all this doubt and strife, 

And for each mystery would find a key. 

But not today, then be content, poor heart I 

God's plans, like lilies, pure and white unfold, 
We must not tear the close shut leaves apart ; 

Time will reveal the hidden cups of gold. 
And if, through patient toil, we reach the land 

Where weary feet, with sandals loose, may rest, 
Then we shall know and clearly understand — 

I think that we shall say, "Our God knew best !" 

M. R. Smith. 
Quoted by Bishop Huntington, 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Page 

Advent Sunday : Knowing the Time 9 

Second Sunday in Advent : The Power of The Holy Ghost . . 22 

Third Sunday in Advent: Old Babes 37 

Fourth Sunday in Advent: Precious Presents from Paul in 

Prison 52 

Christmas : The Wonder of All Wonders 69 

Sunday after Christmas : Looking Backward 85 

New Year's Day : Looking Forward 99 

Sunday AFTER New Year: The Present Judgment 110 

Epiphany: Three Hearts 124 

First Sunday after Epiphany: Thinking Sunday-school Teachers. 141 

Second Sunday after Epiphany: Christians in Christ .... 158 
Third Sunday after Epiphany : The Conflict of the Christian in 

Christ 175 

Fourth Sunday after Epiphany: A Double Debt 189 

Fifth Sunday after Epiphany : A Stranger in the Sanctuary 205 

Sixth Sunday after Epiphany: Peter's Power 219 

Septuagesima Sunday : Paul's Power 236 

Sexagesima Sunday : Paul's Path 252 

QuiNQUAGESiMA SuNDAY : Paul's Poem 267 

First Sunday in Lent: Paul's Plea 284 

Second Sunday in Lent: Know and Grow 296 

Third Sunday in Lent : Three Classes of Children 314 

Fourth Sunday in Lent: An Allegory 326 

Fifth Sunday in Lent: The Spotless Sacrifice 339 

Palm Sunday : God's Mind 351 

Confirmation Sermon : Jesus' Jewels 364 

Good Friday : The Serpent and the Savior 376 

Easter Sunday : The Lump Leavened 379 

First Sunday after . Easter : What Would John Join? .... 390 

Second Sunday after Easter: The Shepherd and His Sheep . 405 

Third Sunday after Easter: The Dearly Beloved 419 

Fourth Sunday after Easter: Do Not Err 434 

5 



6 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

Page 

Fifth Sunday after Easter: Three Kinds of Hearers and Two 

Kinds of Religion 450 

Sunday after Ascension : What would You do To-day, If You 

Knew That Tomorrow You would be in Eternity ? . . . . 463 

Pentecost: What Meaneth This? 476 

Trinity Sunday : The Divine Deep 489 

First Sunday after Trinity : Who is a Liar ? . 501 

Second Sunday after Trinity: May One be Sure of His Salva- 
tion? 512 

Third Sunday after Trinity : The Mighty Hand of God . . . 523 

Fourth Sunday after Trinity : The Path to Glory . . . . ■ . 535 

Fifth Sunday after Trinity : An Article of Agreement . . . 550 

Sixth Sunday after Trinity : We should not Serve Sin . . . 565 

Seventh Sunday after Trinity : The Manner of Men .... 578 

Eighth Sunday after Trinity : The Spirit of Adoption . . 589 

Ninth Sunday after Trinity : Why so Many Fall ? 601 

Tenth Sunday after Trinity : Inexcusable Ignorance .... 613 
Eleventh Sunday after Trinity : Born Out of Due Time . . . 618 
Twelfth Sunday after Trinity : Letters of Recommendation . . 628 
Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity : Who Hath Bewitched Us ? . 635 
Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity : The Path made Plain . . 647 
Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity : Practical Principles .... 662 
Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity : Paul's Great Prayer .... 676 
Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity : The One Baptism .... 690 
Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity : How to Get Rich . . . . 709 
iMNETEENTH SuNDAY AFTER Trinity : Where Are We? .... 722 
Twentieth Sunday after Trinity : Five Fools . . . . . 737 
Twenty-first Sunday after Trinity : The Battle of Battles . . 748 
Twenty-second Sunday after Trinity : The First Foreign Mis- 
sionary 764 

Twenty-third Sunday after Trinity : Was Paul Popular ? . 780 

Twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity : God has Translated Us . 790 

Thanksgiving Day : Thanks Be to God 803 

Twenty-fifth Sunday after Trinity: Our Dear Dead . . 824 

Twenty-sixth Sunday after Trinity: The Word and the World. 833 
Twenty-seventh Sunday after Trinity : Ten Truths God Wants 

You to Know Perfectly 846 

Are Church Suppers Right? 861 

The Greatest Reformation 880 



THE ETERNAL EPISTLE 



ADVENT SUNDAY. 
Knowing the Time. 

KOM. 13:11-14 

HND that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out 
of sleep : for now is our salvation nearer than when we be- 
lieved. The night is far spent, the day is at hand : let us there- 
fore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of 
light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day ; not in rioting and drunken- 
ness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But 
put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, 
to fulfil the lusts thereof. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Dear Christian Friends: 

There is no question as to whom the letter to the Ro- 
mans was addressed. It was addressed to the Christian 
people. We find in the first chapter the following words : 
"Among Avhom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ; To 
all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints; 
Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the 
Lord Jesus Christ." The text then is addressed, not to 
heathen, but to Christians, and Christians are admonished 
to know the time, that it is high time to awake out of 
sleep. There are some things that we all know about 
time; we know what time is in general. There is not a 
man here this morning who has not some time or other 
said, I have not got time to do this or that. You know 
that today, Avhen, it is past, is past forever. You know 
that tomorrow is not today until today is past forever. 

You not only know what time is in general, but you 
ill so know the time of your own lives. You know how 

9 



10 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

much time has passed from the day that you were born 
until today. I take it for granted that you know your 
own age. 

Not only do we know the time of our own lives, but 
we know the time of the world. Whatever may have been 
the ages from the beginning to the first day, there is no 
question about the fact that as far as the people of this 
world are concerned, it was about four thousand years 
from the days of Adam to the days of Christ, and that 
it is about two thousand years since Christ was born, and 
that now we are in the year One thousand, nine hundred 
and four, and every infidel in the world Avho wrote a letter 
this day has, by the very beginning of his letter, acknowl- 
edged that it is nineteen hundred and four years since 
Jesus Christ was born. 

We know this about time, and the professed Chris- 
tian, especially in the Lutheran Church, knows that it is 
the first Sunday in Advent. We know what time it is in 
the Church Year. We know that Christmas is coming, 
and that there is a preparation necessary in the hearts 
of men for the reception of Jesus Christ, the God-man, as 
well as it was necessary for them to cry out ^^Hosanna to 
the Son of David ! Blessed is He that cometh in the name 
of the Lord!'' Our epistle of the morning admonishes us 
to know the time, and therefore I shall take for my theme 

KNOV\^ING THE TIME. 

I. ''And that, knowing the time, that now it is high 
time to awake out of sleep ; for now is our salvation nearer 
than when we believed." We have before us here the pic- 
ture of a father in the home, early in the morning, going 
to the stairway and calling the children and saying for 
the last time. It is high time that you all get up, awake, 
arise, dress and go to work. The Apostle Paul writes 
many of his letters with pictures of the household, or of 
the army, or of the arena before him. We have here a 
picture, I say, of the household, of the good house-father 
admonishing everybody to get up soon and go to work, 
for the night is spent and the day is at hand. Knowing 



ADVENT SUNDAY. 11 

the time then, it is high time to awake; for the Christian; 
for the heathen. 

1. I said a moment ago that this whole epistle, was 
addressed to Christians. ''Now is our salvation nearer 
than when we believed." But when we believe in Christ 
is our salvation not as near as it ever can come? Isn't 
a man saved when he believes on Christ? And if he is 
saved, how can his salvation come any nearer? The mo- 
ment I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and accept Him 
as m^^ personal Savior, I am a saved man, but, my friends, 
I am today one-third of a century nearer to the Jordan, 
nearer to the crown, nearer to the judgment, than I was 
when I first believed ; consequently it is high time for the 
Christian to awake out of sleep. iVnd was this admoni- 
tion of the Apostle Paul unnecessary? Is the Church of 
God asleep? It is only too true, my friends, that too many 
ministers of the Gospel, and too many churches, are really 
asleep, like the children in bed in the morning; there are 
too many churches perfectly satisfied with their rest, per- 
fectly satisfied with their sweet sleep, waiting just a little 
longer, for a little more sleep, and wishing that the call 
might cease for a moment. Oh, it is so nice to lie a while 
yet on these cold mornings in a good warm bed! And 
there you have the picture of the Church of God, letting 
the family sleep on, — father no Christian — possibly 
mother no Christian — possibly the children not Chris- 
tians ; professed Christians themselves not growing at all 
in knowledge, knowing nothing more about the Bible than 
they did twenty-five years ago; no spiritual development, 
no activity, sleeping, and sleeping, and sleeping, and Paul 
says to the Church of God, It is time, high time, that you 
awake out of sleep. It is high time for the professed 
Christians to discover the difference between having their 
names on the church book, and having their names in the 
Book of Life. It is high time that the Church of God 
knows the difference between hearing God's Word Sun- 
day after Sunday, and growing in grace, and sitting at 
home and grumbling about the church, sitting at home 
and nmking plans with the children of the devil to carry 
on the work of the world. It is time, high time that the 



12 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

Church of God discover the wonderful difference between 
mocking at the means of grace, and making use of them; 
and so I say this morning, in the name of my God, it is 
high time that the Church of God itself awakes out of 
sleep. 

2. Not only is this true of the Church of God, but 
it is doubly true with regard to those who are no Chris- 
tians. One of the things that seems impossible to me is 
this, that a man should live in a Christian land like 
America, with Bibles by the thousand, hymns of praise 
on every tongue, churches of God in every community, 
the light from heaven forcing itself into every avenue, 
conscience enlightened despite the darkness, and living 
right on as if there were no God in heaven, living right 
on as if the story of Christ on Calvary were a mockery, 
living right on as if there were thousands of years of time 
for all poor mortals to be converted to God, putting off 
from day to day the salvation of an immortal soul, worth 
more than all the Avorld, on account of a little business, 
a little money, a little dirt, a little fun. The question, my 
friends, that I cannot solve, is how any man with an ounce 
of brain left, can go on to perdition in spite of mother's 
prayers, and all the Christian prayers and the earnest ad- 
monitions, and the cry from heaven, and the souFs cry, 
and immortality stamped on his very image. Consequently 
I say again, it is high time that every man on earth 
awake from his sleep of lethargy and of lost condition and 
arise in the name of Christ his only Savior. 

II. Not only is it time to awake, but it is time to 
get up. 

1. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. The 
Apostle Paul, looking out into the world, sees that now 
it is twilight, just the moment that the morning star is 
going down and the light of the sun is appearing in the 
eastern horizon. We might well say that from the days of 
Adam and Eve to the days of Christ it was night; we 
might well say that when that star came from the east, 
and Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the morning came; we 
might well say that in the days of the apostles there went 
a cry out into the world such as there never was before, 



ADVP:NT SUNDAY. 13 

and there never can be a greater by the same number of 
men, It is high time to awake out of sleep for the night 
is far spent and the day is at hand! And as the cry could 
go out for the world at large, it can go out to each in- 
dividual this morning: The night of sin is far spent; the 
night of an infidelic heart is almost past; the night of your 
life is growing long and the morning hour is approaching ; 
the night of your darkness and sinfulness is all in the past, 
and now the light of God's Holy Word, the light of the 
Gospel, the light of a Christian life, is all around you ; the 
light of Christian prayers calling to heaven; the provi- 
dential hand moving faster and faster in history; all this 
admonishes you to get up and arise from your sleep. The 
night is far spent ; the day is at hand. The Bible is com- 
plete; the redemption is finished; death has been con- 
quered ; tlie Church has become a mighty power on earth ; 
Christian literature is flooding the world; the Gospel 
sun is shining ; it is time to get up ! 

III. And when we do arise, w^hat is the next thing to 
do? To dress. ^'Let us therefore cast off the works of 
darkness and let us put on the armor of light.'' 

1. We have here the picture then of the children ris- 
ing in the morning ; the first thing is to pull off that night 
robe; the next thing is to put on the garments for the 
day. And so the Apostle Paul pictures before the world, 
the people of God, that they also should cast off the works 
of darkness and they should put on the armor of light. 
And do you want to know what these w^orks of darkness 
are? "Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting 
and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not 
in strife and envying." And if you want to know more 
about the garments you are to pull off, we will read what 
we learn in Gal. 5 : "Now the works of the flesh are 
manifest, which are these: Adultery, fornication, un- 
cleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, 
variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 
envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like, 
of the which I tell you before, as I have told you in time 
past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the 
kingdom of God." My dear friends, you cannot sit here 



14 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

this morning and sleep when God's Holy Word is holding 
forth to you the very marks of the garment that never can 
enter into the kingdom of heaven. And how many people 
there are to-day yet, professed Christians, that seem to 
boast of these very garments here mentioned. "Rioting" 
— how many professed Christians are engaged in riots to- 
day? "Drunkenness'' ^ how many professed Christians 
to-day own the very buildings in Avhich these damnable 
saloons are carr^dng on their work, and it is just as bad 
to own the building and rent it for such purposes as it is 
to run the business. How many professed Christians there 
are to-day who go in and stand by the bar by the side of 
those leading ungodly lives, leading others who care noth- 
ing for Christ, and for the church, and for their souls, 
day by day on the path of destruction. As we heard this 
morning in our Sunday School lesson, the curse that 
rested upon Jerusalem Avas caused by the priests in their 
drunken sprees. If the priests themselves were drunken, 
what could you expect of the people? If ministers af the 
Gospel in this enlightened age think of starting such 
saloons as were started in New York by a great bishop 
of a great church, is it any wonder that the church mem- 
bers themselves stand there and feel satisfied? If the 
ministers of the Gospel, and the Sunday School teachers, 
and the councils of the churches, and the leading people of 
the city are going to go into these places, is it any wonder 
that the young boys are anxious for the day to come when 
they are allowed to go in and get a glass of beer with- 
out being refused? Is it any wonder that these boys are 
brought home dead drunk? Is it any wonder that Chris- 
tian families are put to shame as they are? My friends, 
you cannot wear these garments and go on and dress as 
God would have you dress. 

"Not in chambering and wantonness." I am informed 
that there are men who call themselves Christians, who are 
not at home, where they ought to be at night. Where are 
they? Where are they? Chambering — and you know 
what the word "chambering" means. Every man must so 
live as under the eye of God, and whether he knows it or 
not, God's eye is upon him, and the man that, lives in 



ADVENT SUNDAY. 15 

adultery or fornication cannot get to heaven any more 
than the devil himself can. 

"Not in strife and envying." How many professed 
Christians there are who seem to think it is big to be at 
strife with somebody, to be quarreling here, and quarreling 
there, and stirring up strife here and there; and just as 
sure as I find the spirit in my heart to want to make 
trouble with every man and woman I meet, just so sure I 
have got a garment on that must be pulled off before I can 
go to heaven. Oh, it is high time to awake; to get up; 
to undress in order that we may dress. When we run 
through this catalogue of sins we come to envying. Oh, 
that green-eyed monster, jealousy! which no one will 
acknowledge, and those having it, act so dumb. May God 
in heaven help us to get rid of envying and jealousy. It 
is that which has ruined many a man in business; it is that 
Avhich has ruined many a man in the church; it is that 
which makes people blind to their own soul's eternal good; 
it is that which is ruining our immortal souls. The devil 
never accomplished anything greater in all the world than 
when he hatched out jealousy and put it into the heart of 
Cain, and from that time on to this the mark has been 
borne. I do not know what mark it was that God put on 
Cain, but He did mark him; whether it was a black skin 
or not T do not knoAv ; but there is one mark that Cain had 
that a great many people are carrying, and that is the 
mark of envy, the mark of jealousy, that moved him to 
raise the club to kill his good brother Abel, and if you 
have that mark about you, the only reason you have not 
murdered is because you have not had the opportunity. 
Pull off the garment of darkness; pull off your garment 
of adultery ; of fornication ; of uncleanness, lascivious- 
ness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, 
wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, 
drunkenness, revellings, and such like, for remember it is 
God who says, through His inspired writer, "Of the which 
I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that 
they which do such things shall not. inherit the kingdom 
of God." Pull off this old garment of sin, with all its 
works of the flesli. 



16 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

2. Let US put on the right garment, the whole armor 
of God, and let us put on the armor of light. "But put ye 
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for 
the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof." xlnd if we want to 
know what that particular garment is that we are to wear, 
let us read again from Gal. 5 : "But the fruit of the 
Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, good- 
ness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is 
no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the 
flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit^ 
let us also walk in the Spirit.'' If you put on Christ then 
you will live in the spirit, and if you live in the Spirit, 
you must have in your heart love, you must be happy, you 
must seek peace, you must have patience, you must be 
gentle, you must develop that beautiful attribute, good- 
ness, you must have meekness, and you must be tem- 
perate : against such there is no law. 

Now, my dear friends, I ask you the question this 
morning, have you risen up from your sleep? Did you 
awake? And if you did awake and have pulled off the 
garment of darkness, have you put on the armor of light? 
Are you Avalking in Christ Jesus? Are you so living as 
you Avould wish to live if Jesus Christ were all around you 
and you in Him? If He is the vine and we are the 
branches, and if we can do nothing without Him, how 
else can we go on and dress for the higher life, if we do 
not walk as in His presence and in His sight? 

IV. Then, when the children are awake, and have 
risen, and have dressed themselves, the last call comes : 
"Let us walk honestly, as in the day." — in other words, 
let us go to work. KnoAving the time, it is high time that 
we all go to work, early in the day and keep at it all day. 

1. Let us walk honestly, as in the day. A great 
writer has said : "I want to so live as if my house had no 
window blinds, and my heart itself were surrounded by 
glass, and Jesus Christ were living inside." Let us so live 
that God may understand us. The question is not at all 
how people may understand us, but let us so live that 
God may always understand us, and walk in His light as 
iu the day. The thief usually does not make arrangements 



ADVENT SUNDAY. 17 

to go out in the morning, but after night. The sins of the 
world are mostly committed from the evening until the 
morning. The Apostle Paul tells us that in the Church of 
God we should walk as in the day. In other words, we 
should go to w^ork and live honestly, and we should begin 
very early in the day and continue throughout the day. 
That leads me to this important fact, that if the 
Church of God shall prosper on earth, we must give our at- 
tention to the little children. The Lord has taught us 
this so particularly again in the morning's Sunday School 
lesson. You will remember that Isaiah found Israel 
sunken as low as it possibly could on account of intemper- 
ance; you will remember that God Himself said of Jeru- 
salem that there is only one hope for that city, and that 
is to take the children from the laps of their mothers — 
from the breasts of their mothers, to use the words of 
Scripture. You will remember the little children of Israel 
were kept on their mother's laps until they were three 
years old. Now, says God, the only hope for that great 
city is not these old drunken sots any more; the only hope 
is not those Avhose consciences have become seared; the 
only hope for Jerusalem is to take hold of the little in- 
fants, take them from their mothers' breasts, take them 
from their parents' knees, and lay line upon line, precept 
upon precept, line upon line, precept upon precept, until 
they shall become the men and the women of God's eternal 
city. Oh, dear friends, the Protestant Church has not 
aroused itself to the importance of educating these chil- 
dren as the Romish Church has. If the Church of Rome, 
sitting on her seven black hills, can train her children for 
ten and twelve years to die Roman Catholics, no dif- 
ference where they go, what could not the Protestant 
Church do, if she would educate her children as she could? 
I am by no means satisfied with simply a Sunday School. 
I believe that Avhen the conscience of the Christian Church 
is aroused to the. awful situation in some of our public 
schools, to the fact that the old Bible is not allowed any 
more in the very schools that were born out of the Bible, 
when we understand the awful power of sin in our youth. 



18 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

when we understand then the little seed of thirty minutes 
in a week, and sometimes not even that, then, my friends, 
we ought to arouse to the importance of having a kinder- 
garten in every church where the little children can learn 
God's Word every day for the first ten or twelve years of 
their lives; and I hope the time will come when tlie 
Protestant Church all over this land will say to the public 
schools, you shall educate our children after we have God's 
hand on their hearts ten years, and no sooner. Why are 
we not doing it now? The only reason is that we are afraid 
to reach into our pockets and spend a dollar or two for 
the souls of our children. Let us begin early in the day to 
walk in God's paths. 

2. And when we thus begin early with our children 
and train them as they ought to be trained, then let us 
continue as long as it is day. There are some people who 
seem to think the right way to live is to serve the devil 
until just a few weeks or months before they die, and then 
hurry and prepare to meet God. I am glad that the Lord 
Jesus Christ is willing to save souls in the last moment, 
but I, for my part, would be very sorry, if my last thoughts 
in this world were like this, that here I am on my bed, 
and I am going to die in a few days, and all my life I have 
spent trying to drive other people to hell. I should think 
it a terrible thing in that hour to remember that God's 
grace and mercy had been following me all through life, 
and I never listened to Him until just now. It would be 
a terrible thought for me to think that I haven't a single 
day in all my life left to do good. It would be a terrible 
thing to let the impression go out among other young men 
that they, too, shall prepare to meet tlieir God when they 
are about forty or fifty years old, and many will never 
reach twenty, and will be lost forever. 

It is high time that we awake out of sleep; that we 
get up; that we pull off the old garment of sin and put 
on the armor of light; it is high time that we go to work 
early in life and work on throughout life, every day, un- 
til we breathe our last breath. My friends, life is too 
short to quit working in the vineyard of our God, and let 
me speak a word of admonition to the aged people: You 



ADVENT SUNDAY. 19 

have only got a few more years to toil, only a few more 
steps to take, only a few words to admonish your fellow- 
men, only a few more days before you. Oh, work while it 
is day, for the night cometh when no man can work. 

It was in the year 354, in Africa, that a mother gave 
birth to a son for whom she had prayed long before he was 
born, and prayed earnestly for him after he was born. 
Mother jNionica was one of the great women of the fourth 
century. Her soul's desire was to give to the world a 
great man of God. For him she prayed, I say, long before 
he was born, and when he was born, she prayed for him 
while lie was nursing at her breast; she prayed for Mm. 
as she led him on the jDaths of life; she prayed for him 
in liis daily work. There was given to that boy a wonder- 
ful brain, a great imagination, a power for good or for 
evil. That boy at the age of about eighteen had gone so- 
deep into sin that the Avorld thought there was no hope for 
him any more; that boy had gone into the philosophy of 
the world and forsaken his mother's prayers and forsaken 
her admonitions and instructions, and there was nothing 
too bad for Aurelius Augustine to do. He went on from: 
bad to worse, while his poor mother was praying God never 
to Jet that boy get away from Him. Like a fish in the 
waters, having taken a bite of the hook, he swam up and 
down the waves but could not get away from the great 
truths that the mother planted into him. He went on to 
Rome, and from Rome to Carthage, and from Carthage to 
Milan, and there accidentally he heard the great Am- 
brosius delivering one of those great sermons of the fourth 
ceutur}^ His conscience was a wakened ; he Avas led back 
to his mother's prayers and to his mother's God. He 
tried to shake off tlie impression and went out with a 
friend of his, trying to plunge into sin deeper and deeper. 
One day an officer came to those two young men and told 
them how the Gospek preached by Ambrosius was saving 
liundreds and thousands of young men from death and 
destruction, and the conscience of Aurelius Augustine was 
awakened more than ever. Becoming uneasy and tremb- 
ling he said to his friend, "Come out and let us go into the 
garden;" there lie stood, face to face with the young man 



20 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

who, steed like, had been galloping with him down the 
pavement of hell. He said, "The poor, and the aflicted, 
and the weak-minded, are coming into the kingdom of 
God, and you and I, with brain and education, are going 
to damnation, and it is time that we repent.'' Those two 
men stood face to face and trembled until Aurelius 
Augustine said : "I can stand it no longer," and went 
down into that garden under a fig tree; he lay there like 
his Master of old, and sweat as it were drops of blood; 
lying there he said, "Oh God, what shall I do? How can 
I get away from Thee and from my mother's prayers? O 
my God, when shall I be delivered of this burden and 
curse that rests upon me? Others have sinned ignorantly, 
and I knew better. Others have sinned, born of wicked 
mothers, and I have sinned against the prayers of the most 
Godly mother of the age. O God, will there be any hope 
for me tomorrow? O God, will there be any hope for me 
today? O God, will there be any hope for me now? And 
he heard a voice, and it was like the voice of a child, say- 
ing, "Arise, arise, and read." He listened to that voice, 
and he remembered that back there somewhere was tlie 
Testament that his mother made him promise to carry 
though he went to hell. He went back to the old Book, 
and for the first time in years opened it, and his eyes fell 
on these words: "Let us walk honestly, as in the day; 
not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and 
wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the 
Lord Jesus Christ;" he said, "I will put Him on," and 
Saint Augustine became a saved man, and Mother Monica 
gave to the world the greatest man that lived since the 
days of the apostles, one of the greatest men that kindled 
tlie fire of a Doctor Luther, as the man that stirred up the 
Reformation of the sixteenth century, and that to-day has 
brought about the great theologians of the world, written 
in the apostle's letters as found in the book of Komans; 
and now may this admonition this morning move some one 
who has heard my voice to awake, to arise, to dress, and to 
walk as in the day, for the night cometh when no man can 
labor. Amen. 



ADVENT SUNDAY. 21 



PRAYER. 

O God, our heavenly Father, we thank Thee for this blessing of 
proclaimin-g Thy eternal truth ; we thank Thee that these epistles are 
the inspired Word of God, and we thank Thee that we are permitted 
to preach sermons on sermons by Thine apostles. We pray Thee, O 
God, that Thou wilt spare our life to finish this course of sermons on 
these great letters of the Holy Spirit ; and we pray Thee, our heavenly 
Father, that Thou wilt enable those that are here this morning to follow 
this course of sermons as found in Thy Word throughout the year, and 
as one by one Thou mayst call some of them hence, do Thou help that 
these messages which they have heard may fit them the better for Thy 
kingdom. We ask Thee that Thou wilt give us Thy Holy Spirit to 
enlighten us and keep us close to the Master, that we may put on His 
garment of righteousness and accept it by faith. Heavenly Father go 
with us now throughout this coming week, and throughout the balance 
of life, and may we all heed the admonition given to our conscience. 
We pray Thee that Thou wilt give us many?, mothers like Monica, who 
shall pray for their children, and shall not give them up, but take them 
to the throne of God by daily prayer. We pray Thee, heavenly Father, 
that Thou wilt help the Church of God to arouse from her sleep and 
to take the little children early in the morning and place them in Thy 
vineyard; and we pray Thee that Thou wilt spare the lives of old hard- 
ened sinners until they see the way to come back to Thee. We know, 
O God, how stubborn the natural man is ; we know how hard it is for 
those who have been in the way of sin so long to come to Thee ; but 
what is hard for us is easy for Thee ; and therefore we pray Thee to 
reach out Thine almighty hand of mercy and take hold of the hearts 
of stone and crush them and make hearts of flesh, and give them new 
life in Christ Jesus. All these favors we ask in the name of the blessed 
Savior, who taught us to pray : 

Our Father who art in heaven ; Hallowed be Thy name ; Thy 
kingdom come ; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven ; Give 
us this day our daily bread ; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us ; And lead us not into temptation ; 
But deliver us from evil; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen, ^ 



SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT. 

The Power of the Holy Ghost. 

Rom. 15:4-13^. 

fOR whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our 
learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures 
might have hope. Now the God of patience and consolation grant 
you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus. 
That ye ma}^ with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father 
of our Lprd Jesus Christ. Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ 
also received us to the glory of God. Now I saj^ that Jesus Christ was 
a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the 
promises made unto the fathers. And that the Gentiles might glorify 
God for His mercy ; as it is written, For this cause T will confess to 
Thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto Thy name. And again He 
saith. Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with His people. And again, Praise the 
Lord, all ye Gentiles ; and laud Him, all ye people. And again, Esaias 
saith, There shall be a root of Jesse, and He that shall rise to reign 
over the Gentiles ; in Him shall the Gentiles trust. Now the God of hope 
fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, 
through the power of the Holy Ghost. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved in Christ : — 

The Lord Jesus, just before He departed from this 
world, said: "All power is given to Me in heaven and on 
earth." From these words we learn that power belongs 
preeminently and entire!}^ to God, and the very fact that 
He acknowledged that this power was given to Him, 
gives the same power to God the Father. God tlie 
Father and God the Son had all power, but remember, 
this declaration was made in order to give strength to 
the command that followed: "Go ye into all the world, 
and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the 



SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT. 23 

name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
dhost," and in that last phrase yon find that equally 
with the two persons of God — the Father and the Son 
— power belongs to the Holy Ghost. This evening then 
I desire to call your attention to this power as men- 
tioned in the last words of our text : 

THE POWER OF THE HOLY GHOST. 

"Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace 
in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the 
power of the Holy Ghost." The power of the Holy Ghost, 
as Ave find it in this text, gives us : 



I. 


One manuscript 


II. 


One mind. 


III. 


One mouth. 


IV. 


One minister. 


V. 


One measure. 



I. Our attention is called here to one manuscript. 
^'For whatsoever things are written aforetime were writ- 
ten for our learning, that we through patience and com- 
fort of the Scriptures might have hope." The manu- 
script therefore that the Holy Spirit has given us is the 
Book which I hold in my hand, the writings of old, the 
Holy Scriptures, to which the apostle refers when he says, 
•'Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have 
eternal life, and they are they which testify of Me." Did 
you ever stop to think that this one Book itself is a dem- 
onstration of the mighty power of the Holy Spirit? — a 
Book that was Avritten in a period of fifteen hundred 
years — a Book that has sixty-six books in it — a Book 
that has been held down and burned by emperors and 
kings — a Book which has been forbidden to the people 
— a Book which has been destro^^ed time and again, and 
yet, like the adamantine cube of old, whenever it was 
upset, came down right side up? This Book itself is a 
demonstration of the poAver of the Holy Spirit. There 
is more power in that Book than there is in creation; 



24 - THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

there is more power in that Book than there is in tlie 
resurrection of the dead. 

1. I speak of creation first, because the Holy Spirit 
took part in that work. We confess in the creed : I be- 
lieve in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and 
earth; but thereby we do not exclude Jesus Christ nor 
the Holy Spirit, just as we do not exclude the Father 
and the Holy Spirit from redemption, and just as we 
do not exclude the Father and the Son from sanctifi- 
cation. When we read the first verses of the Bible we 
find that God created the heavens and the earth, and 
the Spirit dwelt upon the face of the waters. In other 
words, this whole creation was like chaos and would 
never have been in the order in which we find it this 
morning, had it not been for the mighty power of the 
Holy Ghost. 

2. And w^hen we read of the resurrection of Jesus 
Christ, we find sometimes the Bible says that the Father 
raised Him from the dead; we find that Jesus Christ 
says : T have power to give My life, and to take it again ; 
then we read again that He was quickened by the Holy 
Spirit. If you could have gone down into the tomb where 
Jesus lay during those three days of His death, you would 
have found His body cold and lifeless ; if you could have 
placed your hand on the forehead that had been wearing 
the crown of thorns, you wold have felt death there; if 
you could have placed your hand on that breast in which 
beat that loving heart, you would have found a gash 
there, cold in death ; if you could have placed your hands 
on His feet, you would have found the marks where the 
nails were driven; that whole body Avas lying there stiff 
and cold, and you would have said. There is no power 
outside of God Almighty that can raise Him up. Tlie 
Holy Spirit quickens Him, and He conquers death and 
grinds his iron limbs to powder. There you get the 
power of the Holy Ghost, and we are assured that when 
Jesus Christ shall come in the clouds with all His holy 
angels, that the dead shall all rise by the same power that 
Jesus rose, and Jesus being raised by the power of the 
Holy Spirit, your body and mine shall rise by that power. 



SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT. 25 

And yet, my friends, the power of the Holy Ghost in this 
world is just as great, or greater, than the power of res- 
urrection; greater than the power of creation. If you 
are today a child of God, you are as much a new creation 
as the sun Avas when God said. Let there be a sun. The 
new heart within you has been created by the Holy Spirit 
in His Word. If you today are spiritually alive, you have 
had as much power in bringing you from spiritual death 
to life as God used Avhen He said. Let there be life, and 
there Avas life. The Word of God, then, is one manu- 
script which is the outward demonstration of the power 
of the Holy Ghost. 

II. Our text speaks not only of one manuscript, but 
also of one mind. '^Now the God of patience and conso- 
lation grant you to be likeminded one toward another 
according to Christ Jesus. Tliat ye ma}^ with one mind 
and one mouth glorifA- God, even the Father of our Lord 
Jesus Christ." 

1, To be like-minded and to have one mind is the 
power of tlie Holy Ghost. What confusion there is in 
the minds of the people! There is an old couplet that 
says : 

Many birds of many kinds ; 
Many men of many minds. 

Wherever we go Ave find that each man lias his own 
way of thinking, and this diA^ersity of minds is found not 
only among the people of the Avorld, it is found also 
among professed Christians. The Apostle Paul was writ- 
ing this letter to Christians, as Ave heard last Sunday 
night, but among those Christians there Avere some of 
Jewish extraction, and some from the Gentiles, and these 
people could not be brought together to think alike on 
account of their former environments and circumstances. 
He calls attention to their different AA^ay of thinking and 
looking at things in a few verses of the previous chapter. 
^'For one belicA^eth that he may eat all things; another, 
who is weak, eateth herbs. * * * j knoAA', and am per- 
suaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean 
of itself; but to him that esteemeth anything to be un- 
clean, to him it is unclean.'' The people in the present 



26 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

day are just the same as they were then. One man thinks 
it is wrong to take a swallow of whiskey; the other 
thinks it is just right. One man thinks it is wrong to 
smoke; the other thinks it is just right to smoke. One 
thinks it is all wrong to eat this and that; and the other 
says it is just right to eat this and that. The Apostle 
Paul, speaking on that question says : ''I know, and am 
persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing un- 
clean of itself; but to him that esteemeth anything to be 
unclean, to him it is unclean." If a man thinks it is 
wrong to chew tobacco, to him it is unclean; if he tliinks it 
is wrong to smoke, to him it is Avrong to smoke; if a man 
thinks it is wrong to take a swalloAv of wine, to him it 
is wrong, until he is convinced that that is right. In 
other words, as long as the world stands, even professed 
Christians are hot going to agree on just exactly what 
you dare eat and what you dare not; or what you dare 
drink, and what you dare not. Nevertheless, though 
there is confusion among the people, the Holy Spirit has 
the power to give these people one mind. 

This confusion lies not only in eating and drinking, 
but you will find it in other things. "One man esteemeth 
one day above another ; another esteemeth every day alike. 
Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind." 
The old Jews supposed the seventh day, the old Sabbath, 
was far better than any other day. The Gentiles thought 
one day Avas just as good as the other. The Gentiles 
learned from the Apostle Paul, what all Christians ought 
to know today, that one day is no better than the other. 
You do not find that Jesus Christ one day walked along 
with a long face, and the next day Avith another face ; you 
do not find that one day He AA^as worshiping the Father, 
and the next day not. The Lord Jesus Christ used one 
day just like the other, but He made eA^ery day a day in 
AA^hich to be about His Father's business. There are some 
people Avho seem to think that on the Lord's day they 
must walk around and look so holy, and then, from Mon- 
day morning to Saturday night, they look so devilish. 
My friends, it is better to be children of God every day. 
It is better to be just exactly on ^Fonday and Tuesday, 



SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT. 27 

-iind Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, what 
you are on Sunday. 

2. Out of all this confusion the Holy Spirit has the 
})ower to briui; one mind, and that one mind is the mind 
of Christ Jesus. ^'Now the God of patience and conso- 
lation iirant you to be like-minded one toward another, 
accordin,^ to Christ Jesus. That ye may with one mind 
and one moutli g:lorify God, even the Father of our Lord 
Jesus Christ." If the world is ever to have one mind, it 
is not to have the mind of a Luther, not the mind of a 
Calvin, not the mind of a Zwingley, not the mind of this 
man or of that, but it must have the mind of the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and in Him only the Church of God can 
•ever be united. It is in the power of the Holy Spirit to 
get men to think as Jesus thinks. It is in the power of 
the Holy Spirit to give us the minds to say, and to catch 
the hearts of men, and to catch their wills, by the powder 
of the Holy Ghost. The hearts of men are very slippery 
things, and they can very easily be caught sometimes by 
sinful offerings. We have just heard throughout the 
past week that even a banker's heart can be caught by a 
Mrs. Chad wick. There are some people whose hearts 
can be very easily caught by some sinful proposition ; but 
if you ever tried to catch the hearts of men and make 
Christians of them by human power, you have failed. If 
you liave ever tried to take the Avills of men and change 
them by your power, you have entirely failed. There 
never was a man in the history of the world that could 
^ver make a Christian of a man that was none. We hear 
about men who travel from city to city converting men, 
and I never saw a man in my life that was converted by 
another man, who was not entirely perverted. There is 
onh^ one power that can ever make a child of God out of 
a child of the devil, and that is the power of the Holy 
Ghost. That is the power that can take and catch the 
hearts of men ; it is the power that can take the wills 
of men and turn them, in order that they may fall down 
and worship the Lord Jesus Christ. This, my friends, 
is the power of the Holy Spirit, the one uiind. 



28 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

III. Not only do we find he has the power to give 
us one mindp but he has the power to give us one mouth. 
"That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify 
God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Where- 
fore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us 
to the glory of God." When we study these two verses 
carefully we find out that the Holy Spirit has got the 
power to have us worship together, and welcome one 
another. 

1. Worship together with one mouth. We have as 
many mouths as we have faces, but there is one thing 
that the Holy Spirit can do : — He can help us all to 
confess the same faith; He can help us all to pray the 
same prayer; He can help us all to sing the same songs 
of praise. When, a few moments ago we all stood up 
and said, I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker 
of heaven and earth; when we all said: And in Jesus 
Christ His only Son our Lord; when we all said: And 
in the Holy Ghost, it was as one mouth. Now, my friends^ 
no man on earth can stand up and confess the Apostles^ 
Creed unless he has been himself a miracle of the work- 
ings of the Holy Spirit. You do not find a Robert G. 
Ingersol standing up and sajdng, I believe in God the 
Father Almighty, as we confessed this morning. You 
do not find men who are not at heart Christians standing 
up and saying that unless they mean to be hypocrites. 
It is only by the power of the Holy Spirit that a man 
can get faith in the Father, and in the Son, and in the 
Holy Ghost, and when we have got that faith, we all 
stand up and confess it, according to the great declaration : 
He tbat will not confess Me before men, I will not con- 
fess before My Father in heaven. Whosoever shall con- 
fess Me before men, him shall the Son of man also con- 
fess before the angels of God. And when we take up 
our hymns of praise and sing them, we do not one sing 
this verse and another that one, one this stanza and 
another that; we all say the same words at the same 
time, and the very angels of heaven listen for the voice 
that comes out of the First Lutheran church this evening, 
or any other church ; it is the voice of one mouth, praising 



SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT. 29 

God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, b}' the power of 
the Holy Ghost. And so it is with prayer. The Lord 
did not teach the Lord's Prayer for the special purpose 
of simply showing a form. Tliere are some people who 
seem to think that the Lord Jesus just gave that prayer 
as a model, and that, therefore, we do not need to pray 
it today. There are some people who seem to think that 
it Avill not do to have any forms in the Church of God. 
I would like to know if there is anything in the world 
that has any more form to it than this Bible; I would 
like to know if there is anything in the world that has 
more form than the Psalms; or the Lord's Prayer, or the 
benediction, when the Lord God not onlj said that we 
should pronounce the blessing on the people, but said 
you should say : The Lord bless thee and keep thee ; the 
Lord make His face to shine upon thee and be gracious 
unto thee; the Lord lift His countenance upon thee and 
give thee peace. We have no right to change that form. 
The Lord Jesus Christ said : Go ye into all the world 
and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the 
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy 
Ghost. What is that but form? What is grammar but 
form? What is diction but form? What is education 
but form? W^hat are songs of praise but form? The 
real truth is that God gave us the Lord's Prayer in 
order that Ave might all come together and join mouth 
to mouth until every mouth shall be but one mouth, say- 
ing: Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy 
name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as 
it is in heaven ; Give us this day our daily bread, and for- 
give us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass 
against us; Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us 
from evil ; For thine is the kingdom and the power and 
the glory forever and ever. Amen. One mouth praying 
by the power of the Holy Ghost. 

2. This same power gives us one mouth to w^elcome 
each other. "Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ 
also received us to the glory of God." How did God 
receive us? Jesus Christ came down on earth and gave 
us His hand; but He gave us something else besides His 



30 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

hand, He gave us His Word, and that Word of His is 
this: The Son of man is come to seek and to save that 
which was lost. Jesus Christ is the one Mediator be- 
tween God and man — the man, Christ Jesus. Just as 
the Lord Jesus stretched out His hand and gave us His 
Word to bring us to the Father, just so He has given to 
us this Holy Spirit in order that we might have love to 
our fellow men, and this love should enable us to greet 
each other and give each other the hand, welcome each 
other, thereby showing that we have one mouth, that is, 
the mouth of a child of God. 

IV. The power of the Holy Spirit not only gives 
us one manuscript, one mind and one mouth, but also 
one minister. "Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minis- 
ter of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm 
the promises made unto the fathers." The Apostle Paul 
here calls Jesus Christ the Minister. It was the Apostle 
Paul who said : I am determined not to know anything 
among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Some 
ministers of the Gospel are doing more to show them^ 
;selves than to show Jesus Christ to the world. The only 
man that will ever succeed in winning souls for Christ 
by the power of the Holy Spirit is the man that hides 
himself behind his Master, the one that will hold up 
Christ and preach Him to the world. Jesus Christ, cru- 
cified on Calvary, is the one Minister to the Jews; the 
one Minister to the Gentiles. 

1. He is the only hope of the Jews. Sometimes the 
members of the Jewish race are finding fault with me 
because I object to Protestants singing for them. I ob- 
ject to it, not because they are not as good people as we 
are, but I object to it because they ofiflcially and confes- 
sionally deny my Savior, Jesus Christ, and how any 
Protestant Christian on earth can stand up for two dol- 
lars and a half and help them along in a service to deny 
Christ, I cannot understand. I do not understand that 
it is any excuse for Judas Iscariot to reject Jesus be- 
cause he got sixteen dollars, and I do not understand 
that it is any excuse for a Protestant Christian to stand 
lip and help people along in a work that denies the only 



SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT. 81 

{Savior. It is absolutely wroug, aud if Christians had any 
conscience left they would not do such a thing. ^'Now I 
say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circuuicisio.i 
for the truth of God, to contirm the promises made unto) 
tlie fathers." The Lord Jesus Christ Himself wn« ,i 
Jew; the Lord Jesus Christ Himself was circumcised; 
the Lord Jesus Christ Himself died for the Jews first of 
all, and then for the world, and there is no other name 
under heaven given among men whereby a Jew can be 
saved, except by tlie Lord Jesus Christ. God says in one 
jjlace that if an angel from heaven came and proclaimed 
any otlier Gospel, that angel should be accursed, and if 
an angel sliould be accursed for holding up any other 
salvation, what shall befall the man that proclaims sal- 
vation witliout Jesus Christ. I declare, therefore, berore 
this audience this morning, and wish I could reacJi the 
ears of every Hebrew in the world, if he does not repent, 
of liis sins and accept the Savior, there is absolutely no 
liope for liis salvation. That is the Minister whom the 
power of the Holy Spirit proclaims to the w^orld; and 
if all the ministers of the Gospel would stop patting the 
Jews on the back and telling them Ave are all going the 
same way, they ^^ould find out that there is another way, 
and that the only way — Christ and Him crucified. 

2. This same ^linister is not only a Minister for 
tlie Jews; He is a Minister for the Gentiles. "And that 
the Gentik^s might glorify God or His mercy; as it is 
written: For tliis cause I will confess to Thee among 
lie (rciitiles, and sing unto Thy name. And again He 
saith, Kejoice, ye Gentiles; with His people. And again. 
Praise tlie Lord, all ye Gentiles; and laud Him, all ye 
jjeople. And again, Esaias saith., There shall be a root 
of Jess(% and He that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles; 
in Him sliall the Gentiles trust." Here Ave find promise 
after ])romise out of the Word of God that this great 
^linister died for the Gentiles as well as for the Jcavs, 
and what a blessing it has been to you and me that th.e 
Gentiles did receiAe the Gospel. Are you aware of the 
fact that in the sixth and seA^enth centuries after Christ 
a inissi(uiai'y Avent out through Europe and there found 



82 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

our forefathers cutting each other's heads off with knives 
of stone? Are you aware that our own forefathers were 
heathen bowing down before stocks and stones? Had it 
not been for this minister by the power of the Holy Spirit 
that wrought in their hearts a faith, your fathers and 
mothers would not have been Christians, and God only 
knows where you and I would be this evening. Then 
let us not forget that we hold up to the world by the 
power of the Holy Ghost a Savior of the Jews and of 
the Gentiles, of the old and of the young, of big sinners 
and little sinners, a Savior of all. 

V. By the power of the Holy Ghost we notice not 
only the one Minister, but the one measure. "Now the 
God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, 
that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the 
Holy Ghost." In this verse we find the promise of a 
measure that shall be filled up, and this measure is filled 
up not only for God, but through Him also for us. 

1. We find three beautiful attributes of God in this 
text. In one verse He calls Himself the God of patience 
and consolation, and in the last verse, the God of Hope. 

The God of patience! Oh, how full of patience God 
is! He waited on Noah and the people of his day one 
hundred and twenty years to repent ; He waited on the 
children of Israel in the days of Christ. Oh, what pa- 
tience He had with those Pharisees and those Jews, until 
at last He was compelled to ring out that Woe, woe, unto 
you scribes and Pharisees! And what patience He has 
bad with you and with me. When our little children do 
not obey when we tell them to do a thing, and they do 
not do it, we come with great authority and with the 
lash upon their backs; but Oh, how often God has called 
upon you to repent; how often He has told you to come 
and give your heart to Him; how often He has called 
after you with a voice of love and said, only a little longer 
and then you must do one thing or the other ; but He has 
waited, and waited and waited, and He is waiting this 
morning yet, and the only reason you are not in hell right 
now is because God is full of patience; and this we learn 
by the power of the Holy Spirit. 



SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT. 33 

Not only is He the God of patience, but the God of 
consolation. Where have you ever found your consola- 
tion? You say you have found it in the Word of God, 
but where do you find it in the Word of God? Only 
there where it holds up the God of patience and consola- 
tion. Oh, how consoling God is! When the dead are 
lying in our homes our neighbors come in and express 
their sympathy; they go out, and where is the consolation? 
But here comes God's Word: Let not your heart be 
troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In My 
Father's house are many mansions : if it were not so I 
would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come 
again, and receive you unto Myself; that where J am 
there ye may be also. There is consolation. Two years 
ago a young man was killed accidentally only fourteen 
miles from here. The mother was broken-hearted. The 
text that was chosen for her son's funeral was the one I 
have just recited. She said on the day of the funeral, "I 
know there is consolation in that verse, but some how or 
other I cannot find the comfort." A few Sundays ago 
I had the honor of burying that mother, and in that 
Bible she had marked her son's text for herself. That 
mark told me a great deal. She found the consolation 
and was ready to go home to her son; and then I Avas 
compelled to take the same words and preach the conso- 
lation to her husband and to the rest of her children. I 
tell you, my friends, there is consolation in God, and in 
God only, and such a God the power of the Holy Ghost 
holds up to us. 

Not only is He full of consolation, but He is the God 
of hope. If there is anything in the world that is hard 
for a man it is to reach that point where there is no hope 
any more. We have hope as long as there is life. No 
difference how sick we may be, or how much suffering, 
as long as we live we say there is hope. No difference 
how low some one has fallen, as long as he is still in this 
world and breathing we go after him and with the help 
of the Holy Spirit lift him up that we might bring him 
3 



34 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

to the God of hope. There is only one place where there 
is no hope: "But the children of the kingdom shull be 
cast out into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and 
gnashing of teeth." There shall be no hope. But God 
is full of hope — the God of patience and consolation. 

2. And the God of hope by the power of the Holy 
Spirit comes to us and fills us with Avhat? Joy, peace in 
believing and hope. ''Now the God of hope fill you with 
all joy and peace in believing that ye may abound in 
hope through the power of the Holy Ghost." I ask young 
people sometimes w^hy they do not become Christians, and 
Uiey say, Well, we want to enjoy ourselves a while yet; 
we want to have real pleasure. Oh, that the poor boy 
and girl could once learn the great lesson that there is 
no joy outside of salvation! This thing of going to the 
theater for pleasure, where you sit doAvn and hear un- 
godly things that may make you laugh for the moment, 
is it joy? Your immortal soul cries out: Oh, I need 
something better than that. In the hour of death you 
are not going to think of Macbeth nor of Hamlet; in the 
hour of death you will not care whether you have Shake- 
speare under your pillow or not; in that hour you will 
Avant liope, peace, and joy, but this hope, and this peace, 
and this joy can only be found by the power of the Holy 
Ghost, and this can only be found through Him by be- 
lieving in Christ Jesus. Thus we have His mind, and 
having His mind we have got this great measure, the 
filling up by the Holy Spirit. 

Remember, my friends, in conclusion, that the work 
of the Holy Spirt is not yet finished. When Jesus Christ 
died on Calvary He cried out : It is finished. On the 
last great Judgment da.y the Holy Spiiit will be there 
and He will remind you there of His Avork in this world, 
how He called, hoAv He gathered, how He enlightened, 
hoAv He sanctified and how He kept Christians. On that 
great day He will remind you of the fact that His work Avas 
not done here on earth. He will tell you hoAv He went 
after you through a certain sermon that you heard; how 
He stirred up your conscience and stirred up your heart 
and told you to prepare to meet your God. He will call at- 



SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT. 35 

tention to the God of patience; He will call atttention to 
the God of hope ; He will call attention to the God of conso- 
lation. He will stand before you and remind you of the 
fact that He did plead with your conscience and with your 
soul ; He Avill let you understand that He knows you better 
than you do yourself, and there will be no answer for 
you to give, except to stand there condemned, and the 
Holy Spirit will on that day say what Jesus said on 
Calvary. This morning the Comforter is among us, and 
the Holy Spirit is calling to every man, woman and child 
in the house to prepare to meet God, and He will keep 
on calling until the last hour. On that day, when the 
Judgment has come and the last assize on high has been 
held. He will stand before you, with the power of the 
Holy Ghost and cry out : It is finished ! And then it 
will be finished forever Avith you. Oh, may God help you 
to realize that true joy, and true peace, and true happi- 
ness consists in this, that we are children of God; that 
Christ is our Savior; that day and night we trust in Him 
and Him only ; that the seal is upon the covenant : He 
that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; and that 
we never take the warning away as long as we live : He 
that believeth not, shall be damned. May the Holy Spirit 
by that quiet poAver from on high urge you all this even- 
ing to a higher Christian life, and may we be true to each 
other, and admonish each other in the path of rectitude 
and right until Ave shall stand before Him who said on 
Calvary: It is finished; and Him who shall say in the 
last moment of the Judgment : It is now finished. Amen. 

PRAYER. 

O God, our heavenl}^ Father, we thank Thee for the power of the 
Holy Spirit, and we thank Thee that He comes to us through the Word, 
and the holy sacraments, and calls, and gathers, enlightens, sanctifies 
and keeps us ; and we pray Thee, O God, that the power of the Holy 
Spirit may convince us all of sin. and of righteousness, and of judg- 
ment. We ask Thy special blessing this evening upon every soul in. 
this house. Bless the members of this church, the visitors who may be 
here from other churches. We pray Thee to bless those who may be 
visiting here from other cities, and every one who is not a child of 
God, help that he may not go out of this house without fully deter- 



36 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

mining to accept Thee right now as his or her personal Savior. O 
Lord, demonstrate the power of Thy Holy Spirit in our own hearts 
and consciences in this hour. We pray Thee that Thou wilt give a 
special blessing to Thy Church on earth ; Bless Thy truly called servants 
everywhere. Help that they may stand before the people as dying men 
pleading with dying man. We pray Thee, O God, that Thou wilt make 
us all diligent students of that manuscript, the Word of God, and 
thereby help us to have one mind, and that the mind of Christ Jesus ; 
and O God, give us one mouth to confess Thee, one mouth to praise 
Thee, and one mouth to pray to Thee, when we say : 

Our Father who art in heaven ; Hallowed be Thy name ; Thy 
kingdom come ; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven ; Give 
us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation; 
But deliver us from evil; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power,, 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



THIRD SUNDAY IN ADVENT. 

Old Babes. 

1 Cor. 4 :l-5. 

LET a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and" 
stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in 
stewards, that a man be found faithful. But with me it is a 
very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judg- 
ment: yea I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing by myself; 
yet am I not hereby justified: but He that judgeth me is the Lord. 
Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who 
both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make 
manifest the counsels of the hearts : and then shall every man have 
praise of God. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Dearly Beloved in Christ: 

In the early Christian Church of the old covenant the 
little children were presented to their Lord and became 
members of the church at the age of eight days, and we 
find that in Israel there was no such a thing as a family 
Iiaving children who were not Israelites. It was God's 
plan from the beginning that Christian families should 
rear nothing but Christian children, and that this is 
still the spirit of the New Testament we heard in this 
morning's lesson. John the Baptist did not become a 
member of the church when he was a grown up man, or 
a young man, but he, too, was brought into the covenant 
of the circumcision at the age of eight days; was also 
filled with the Holy Spirit even before he was born. From 
this we learn that it is God's will in the New Testament 
dispensation that the little children can come into the 
Christian Church just as soon as they are born, and that 

37 



'38 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

they should have tlie Hol}^ Spirit, at least in the hearts of 
their parents, long before they are born. There is nothing 
more beautiful to a true pastor than to see the little chil- 
dren in the church. Those people Avho do not want the 
children in the church are far from being true Christians, 
for God gave the command to feed the sheep and the lambs, 
and hoAv can we feed the lambs Avhen we never see them? 
The way to train cliildren is to bring them to the house 
of God no later than six weeks after they are born, ana 
have them baptized, and the mothers come with those 
baptized children every Sunday that they are well 
enough ; and a room should be provided where they could 
go with those children in case they do disturb the service; 
and, as soon as they are trained a few weeks, they can be 
in the service as well as any one else. I have said it often, 
and I repeat it to-night, I could take care of twenty-five 
little children in any church if I were permitted to sit 
near by, and those parents who cannot take care of their 
children in the church, are discovering not simply that 
they have not trained them rightly in the church, bat they 
haven't trained them rightly at home. The little children 
should be brought into God's house, and if they were all 
brought in as they should be and trained there Sunday 
after Sunday, line upon line, precept upon precept, Ave 
would not have so many old babies in the church. Now 
the very people who do not love the little babes in tne 
church are old babes, and the old babes are the hardest 
babes in the world to control. The apostle refers to these 
old babes in chapter 3 :1 when he says : "And I, brethren, 
could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto 
carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with 
milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able 
to bear it, neither yet now are ye able." This letter Avas 
addressed to Greek Christians, living in Corinth — the 
most intelligent people AA^ho Avere living on God's eartli 
at that time, but just because they were naturally intelli- 
gent they imagined in a very short time that they were 
theologians, and began to discuss questions concerning 
which they kncAv very little; factions arose, and the 
Apostle Paul Avas called upon to write them a letter in 



THIRD SUNDAY IN ADVENT. 89 

order that he might settle them and in order that they 
might not become too proud, he called them by their right 
name and said, You are a set of 

Or.D P.AP.IES. 

You will notice my themes are in the Bible and not in 
the iiexN spai)ers. These old babies are still found in the 
church, and you will notice we find them 

1. In the pew. 
11. In the pulpit. 

1. The old babes 1 say are souietimes found in the 
ptnv. You know them by three marks: Creating factions; 
qadrrdiiifj about the preachers ; and posing as theologians 
— uiaking fools of themselves. 

1. Creating factions. We read of these old babes in 
the following words: 1 Cor. 1:10-11. "Now I beseech 
you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that 
ye all s])eak the sauie thing, and that there be no divisions: 
among you ; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the 
same mind and in the same judgment. For it hath been 
declared unto uie of you, my brethren, b^^ them which are 
of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among 
you.'' In chapter 3:3 he says of them: "For ye are yet 
carnal : for whereas there is among you envjdng, and 
strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?''^ 
In other words, you will notice that these people that 
caused disturbances and factions were not an ignorant set 
of people, nor does he say they were not Christian, but he 
does say they were yet carnally minded. In Corinth, as 
I said a moment ago, were the thinking people of the 
world, but that did not cease to make them people who 
would quarrel and try to bring up factions in the church. 
And it is so to-day yet. I heard one time of even a senator 
who, in order to disturb his pastor, brought his big dog 
into the church. I do not know whether that was true or 
not ; some say it was, and some say it was a mistake. Be 
that as it may, intelligence alone is no sign that people 
will not try to make up factions. The real faction makers 



40 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

in the world are naturally intelligent people, because the 
dumbest people could not do those things. 

Not only is it true that they are very intelligent, it is 
also true that they may be Christians. I would not for a 
single moment say a man is no Christian because he tries 
now and then to stir up a little faction in the church of 
God. The Apostle Paul gave credit to the Corinthians for 
being Christians. In addressing the letter to them he calls 
"them saints; he calls them children of God in Christ Jesus ; 
nevertheless he calls attention to the fact that though 
they are Christians tbey are very weak, little old babes, 
carnally minded. ^^And I, brethren, could not speak unto 
you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto 
babes in Christ." There are so many people who let the 
flesh rule instead of the spirit, and there is a great deal 
of flesh about all of us; there is a good deal of that envy 
and strife that we find recorded in this verse found in the 
hearts of all people, and unless we let the spirit of God 
reign instead of this evil spirit and flesh that is within 
us, we will always be more or less disturbing the people 
in the church and raising factions. I am not speaking 
to-night on this subject because I have sought a special 
text. You all know that these texts Avere selected long 
l)efore I was born; you know that they are found in this 
order in your own hymn-book; and it is my duty, as a 
minister of the Gospel to explain these texts as Ave go 
along, fearless of any one's feelings and fearless of any 
one's criticism. I say then, giving credit to all people 
who may raise factions in the church, they may be Chris- 
tians but oh, what weak little Christians they are! Old 
babes. 

Not only is it true they may be Christians, but I say 
they are really carnally minded; the right power is not 
on top yet. When I ask the question. Are you jealous, the 
answer is invariably, No. You never saw a really jealous 
person in all your life acknoAvledge jealousy, yet you will 
find it in the hearts of nearly all people; and when that 
jealousy reigns and rules, it robs people of all decency, 
of all sense, and makes them do the dumbest things that 
can be done wh«n they think it is very smart. The result 



THIRD SUNDAY IN ADVENT. 41 

is that it brings about little factions here and there, just 
as the Corinthians Avere all wrought up over small things 
that virtually amounted to nothing. 

2. Another kind of babes in the pew are those that 
quarrel about the preacher. We read in the twelfth 
verse of the first chapter : "Now this I say that every one 
of you saith, I am of Paul ; and I of Apollos ; and I of 
Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul 
crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of 
Paul?" Time and again in this epistle Paul calls atten- 
tion to the fact that these factions in the Corinthian 
church were all the time quarreling about the preacher. 
There was one faction that said, Give us Paul, the little 
theologian, that little hero, that man that has made clear 
to us justification by faith, that man so fearless that he 
fears neither man nor devil, that man though homely, and 
little, and stuttering, is filled with God's truth, and was 
converted on his way to Damascus, had the scales to fall 
from his eyes, arose and was born again, and now is a 
power in the world; give us Paul; none but Paul will 
do for our church. Then there were some who were not 
so much in favor of Paul ; there were some who wanted a 
good looking preacher, a big man, a man who could make 
a good appearance, a man full of fire, a good speaker, a 
man who could carry his audience with him, and so some 
said. We do not want Paul, we want Cephas, or, in other 
words, Peter; we want the man willing to walk on the 
waters to go to his Savior; we want the man that plunged 
into the water to reach his Master; we want the man who, 
when he did make a mistake, repented and w(^pt bitterly; 
we want the man that preached the sermon on the day of 
Pentecost ; we want the man that brought thousands into 
the church in a single day. Then some said, No, we want 
Paul; and others said, Away with Paul, give us Peter. 
Then some arose in the church at Corinth and said. We are 
not very much in favor of Paul, and not very much in 
favor of Peter; we want a man that has got the intelli- 
gence and education of Paul, and the fire and eloquence 
of Peter; one who has the oratory and the diction of an 
Apollos; we want that great hero from the south, that 



42 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

great theologian and speaker who will overshadow Paul 
and Peter; we want the greatest preacher in the w6rld — 
give us Apollos. Then another faction in that same church 
said, We have heard a great deal in our church lately 
about Paul, and we have heard a great deal about Peter, 
and Ave know the faction that would like to have Apollos, 
but we would like to have a little more Christ in our 
church. And that little faction was right, and the other 
three factions were wrong, and the Apostle Paul felt him- 
self constrained to write not only for the correction of 
those that wanted Peter, or those that wanted Apollos, 
but also for the correction of those that were crying, Give 
us Paul! Give us Paul! He said. Was Paul crucified tor 
you? Is Ciirist divided? Don't you all see that you are 
a set of old babes? Don't you all see that when you are 
striking at Paul, or at Peter, or at Apollos, you are hitting 
Christ in the face? I am afraid sometimes some of tlie 
members of the churches of Mansfield will find they are 
striking Jesus Christ instead of the preacher. You sliow 
me a church where there are factions quarreling and 
fighting, and you will find it is not the preacher that is 
suffering, it is Jesus Christ that is being wounded over 
again, and nailed to the cross again; and if people could 
see, as the Holy Spirit is helping us tonight to see, that Ave 
should forget the man and listen to the message; forget 
that we are standing in the presence of flesh and blood, 
and remember that it is God Almighty with His Holy 
Spirit that uses men as miracles of grace to bring us one 
mind in Christ Jesus alone, you Avould not find factions 
in any church on earth. 

3. These factions are AA^rought not only by those 
Avho love to create factions, and those who Avill quarrel 
about the different preachers, but they are Avrought by a 
class of people Avho Avill pose as theologians when they 
are making themselves a set of fools. The apostle refers 
to those in the latter part of the third chapter when he 
says: "Let no man deceive himself. If any man among 
you seemeth to be Avise in this Avorld, let him become a 
fool that he may be Avise. For the wisdom of this Avorld 
is foolishness Avith God. 1^'or it is Avritten, He taketh the 



THIRD SUNDAY IN ADVENT. 48^ 

wise in their own craftiness. And again, The Lord 
knoweth the thonghts of the wise, that they are vain. 
Tlierefore let no man glory in men.'' I know of no more 
beautiful picture of the old babes in the church who try 
to pose as tlieologians and make themselves fools, than 
the very words I have just read. What do I mean? 1 
mean simply this, that when a man has given his whole 
life to tlie study of theology, has given his whole life to 
the study of doctrine, and to the study of his own church, 
then to have some young man who works in the shops day 
after day, and never looks in his Bible from one end of 
tlie week to the other, to step up and try to teach that 
man theology, that one is an old babe and is making a 
fool of himself. How many churches there are where you 
find these same old babes sitting in the pews, never trying 
to study theology as they ought to, who do not know the 
doctrines of their own church or the doctrines of the 
Bible as they ought to, draAving the conclusion that they 
are right and all others wrong, trying to disturb the 
church and raising factions among the people. Let us 
be very careful that we do not remain ignorant of the 
.doctrines of our church. And when I say that, I say it 
not only to this congregation as Lutherans, but I say it 
to you as members of your own church, if you belong 
somewhere else. There are too many Baptists in tTie* 
present day who do not knoAv the doctrines of the Baptist 
Church; there are too many Presbyterians who do not 
knoAv what is in the Confession; there are too many 
Methodists in the present day who never saw the discl- 
Ijline; there are too many Lutherans who absolutely do 
not know why there is a Lutheran Church, and the conse- 
quence is that those people, when they do hear an ab- 
solutely Lutheran sermon, are almost astonished and think 
it is wonderful and say We never heard such things be- 
fore. There are some that not only do not know the 
doctrines of their church, but they do not know the- 
doctrines of the Bible. The main thing after all is to 
know Avhether what the church teaches is in the Bible, 
and whether the things we believe in our church are the 
things the Holy Spirit A\Tote in this Book; and it we- 



44 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

do not study the Bible and know exactly what the Holy 
Spirit said, how shall we ever know what the truth is? 
Therefore I say there are conclusions drawn by those who 
pose as theologians that are simply lies. It has come to 
me several times in the last month that I have been teach- 
ing that little babes not baptized go to hell, and it is a 
damnable lie; I do not care who tells it; I never said 
such a thing and everybody knows I never said such a 
thing. The great trouble is that there are some people 
will sit down and listen to something about half way, draw 
another half conclusion that is half a lie, and go and tell 
it for the truth. It is time we learn the difference be- 
tween being a theologian and being simply a man that 
pretends to be wise and is a fool. I am not calling any 
man a fool; I do not know who said it, but somebody 
has been saying it, and what I ask of you to do, is to 
repent of your sins and to come and listen to the Holy 
Spirit, and not draw conclusions that were never given. 

II. In order that you may know that I am not strik- 
ing alone at the pew, I tell you there are old babes in the 
pulpit as well as in the pew. Our text refers especially 
to the ministry. "Let a man so account of us as of the 
ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. 
Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found 
faithful. But with me it is a very small thing that I 
should be judged of you, or of man's judgment : yea, I 
judge not mine own self. For I know nothing by myself: 
yet am not hereby justified: but He that judgeth me is 
the Lord." When we look into the pulpit carefully we 
still find there are old babes there who do not work as 
they ought to work ; who do -not preach as they ought to 
preach ; and Avho fear man more than God. By these three 
marks you will know the old babes in the pulpit. 

L There are old babes in the pulpit who do not 
work as hard as they should. In the original language 
the word "ministers of Christ" reads like this : "Tlie under- 
rowers of Christ." It is a nautical term, pertaining to 
the navy. The man who is down at the oar rowing is 
called in Greek: onrjpirrjq, and that is the very word 
that here is translated "ministers of Christ." In other 



THIRD SUNDAY IN ADVENT. 45 

words, you know very well when the captain stands in 
the vessel and the under- rowers are down at the oars, that 
they not only must work, but they must work according 
to orders, and work hard if the vessel is to be propelled. 
There you have the picture of the true minister of the 
Gospel who must be willing to go down to his oar and 
pull, and work hard in the ministry. There seems to be 
an idea among some people that if they have a. boy who 
has a weak backbone and is not able to handle the plow, 
or to work in the shop, and isn't worth anything else for 
any other purpose, they will make a preacher of him, and 
it is time that we learn that that kind of preachers are 
old babes in the pulpit. What we need in the pulpit is the 
man of muscle, the man of brain and training, and a 
Christian heart, a man who is not afraid to take hold of 
anything and lift it up; a man not afraid of work, not 
lazy ; a man who is willing to toil from Monday morning 
to Saturday night, and from the beginning of the year 
until the end of the year, until the sweat stands on his 
face, for the salvation of immortal souls and for the good 
of the kingdom of God. It is his duty, I say, to take hold 
•of the oar, and go down where God puts him, and pull for 
the shore until he brings them across the Jordan, saved. 
But the man who thinks he can sit around in his study 
half of the time and do nothing, loaf around with his 
members and visit day after day, doing nothing, that man 
is an old babe in the pulpit. The man who does not care 
whether the children are instructed or not ; who does not 
care whether he works in the Sunday School or not; who 
lias no interest in the young people; who does not care 
whether things go or not just so he gets his salary, 1 
do not care by what name he is known, or what church 
he is in, is an old babe in the pulpit. 

Not only must he be willing to go down where God 
puts him, but he must go up where God puts him. While 
it is a fact that this term shows the under-rower on the 
boat works down below, it also shows he is handling the 
oars at the command of Jesus Christ, and not at the com- 
mand of this or that man, or of the world. And while 
therefore we ought to know that as a servant of God there 



46 , THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

is nothing too low for us to reach down and help lift up, 
we must understand on the other hand that there is no 
man can stand above us and lord it over us when we are 
dealing with the heritage of God. It is not uian that has 
placed me here ; it is not man that has placed a pastor — 
a truly called pastor — in any church, but it is God that 
has placed him there, through the voice of His people, and 
he is responsible, not to any man, but to the Captain of our 
salvation, God Almighty, and if that is not true, then we 
have got an old babe in the pulpit. 

2. It is just as true when they do not preach ;is 
they should. "Ministers of Christ, and stewards of the 
mysteries of God.'' — stewards of the mysteries of God! 
Men come to me and say, I cannot understand at all what 
you teach about the Lord's Supper. You say. Take eat, 
this is My body; you say. Take drink, this is My blood; 
I cannot understand it, and unless you explain it to me 
I will never believe it. I want you to understand, my 
friends, that that minister of the Gospel Avho tries to 
explain to the people what God Himself never explained, 
is an old babe. Where did God ever tell you that any man 
with a head that will go into a seven and a quarter hat 
can comprehend God wlio can put all the worlds inside of 
the palm of 'His hand? It is time we are getting rid of 
those little ideas that, if we cannot comprehend what God 
says, tliat we will not believe it. I thank my God tliat I 
find very little in the Bible that I can comprehend. I 
am like Dwight L. Moody, if I could comprehend every- 
think I find in the Bible, I would say it is man's book. 
I have in my library no fewer than fifteen hundred 
volumes by men wlio have had great minds, and although 
I consider my mind small, I have never found a man^s 
mind yet that I could not comprehend, but I thank God 
for the one Book in my library when I have it there, which 
I ]iold in my hand now, that no man ever yet could com- 
prehend, and consequently no man on earth ever produced 
that Book, except by inspiration; it is the Book of the 
Holy Spirit; and I say again that the minister of the 
Gospel who stands around and apologizes for not being 
able to comprehend God, is an old babe, and the sooner 



THIRD SUNDAY IN ADVENT, 47 

he teaches his i)eople that when God says a thing He 
means it, whether we comprehend it or not, the sooner 
we will all get the one mind of Jesus Clirist. Notice 
well, "...the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the 
mysteries of God." It is not my realm to explain 
mysteries; it is my realm to tell you what God says, and 
you believe it, and let the mysteries be mysteries. Tiie 
Lord's Supper is a mystery to me and I do not explain 
it ; I tell you what God says. The resurrection is a mystery ; 
you do not understand it. Regeneration is a mystery. 
How can this little babe be regenerated? Why, how in 
the name of common sense can an old babe be regenerated? 
Do you knoAV? It is a mystery. One thing I do know, 
that God will regenerate children. He says so. What 
are you going to do about it? I not only know it because 
He says so; I know I was regenerated myself as a child. 

Not only sliould they preach the mysteries of God, 
those who are not old babes, but I say, on the other hand, 
that they sliould be faithful, and the man that is not faith- 
ful to his Master is another old babe in the pulpit. "More- 
over it is required in stewards, that a man be found 
faithful." The question should not arise at all whether 
our preacher can preach like Paul, or Peter, or Apollos; 
the question should arise. Do the things he preaches come 
from God's Word? Are the things he tells us true? Is the 
message from God? Are the things he tells us, whether 
we are willing to hear them or not. Gospel, or are they 
law? If so, the thing to do is to know that that man is 
faithful, and faithful to his Master; if not, he is an old 
babe in the pulpit. 

3. The third uiark by which you may know an old 
babe in the pulpit is that he fears man more than he fears 
his God. "But with me it is a very small thing that I 
should be judged of you, or of man's judgment; yea, I 
judge not mine own self, for I know nothing by myself; 
yet am I not hereby justified : but He that judgeth me Is 
the Lord." Henry AVard Beecher made the statement one 
time that when he was ordained to the ministry of the 
Gospel, he did not ordain his manhood away. It seems 
sometimes, some men, the moment they become ministers 



48 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

of the Gospel, seem to think they are not men any more^ 
that they may not walk nor talk nor look like other men,^ 
but have got to be about half angels on earth, and walk 
around and listen to what everybody says, and try to act 
in such a way, that they will just hop and dance as other 
people pull the string, like the monkey at the corner of the 
street. I pity the old babe in the pulpit that is constantly 
listening to what somebody thinks or says. Every day 
in my visits I am informed how my name is discussed, 
my preaching discussed in the shops, one man fights for 
me, and the other is giving me — I don't know what, neither 
do I care. If I were an old babe I would run down to the 
shop and find out what you are talking about. What do 
I care for your judgment? What do I care about what 
you say? An old babe, I repeat it, would run around and 
try to find out Avhat this one says and that one says, but a 
man who is a real genuine man and knows the message 
he is delivering is true, will deliver it, and when it is de- 
livered, the result is with the people and with their God. 
The word here called "man's judgment" more literally 
translated means man's day. "But with me it is a very 
small thing that I should be judged of you, or in man's 
day." This is only man's day. I am willing to have these 
sermons that I am preaching in Mansfield, put off for 
judgment until that day when the graves are all opened 
and we stand before our Lord and God, and on that day 
it does not make any difference what they said down in 
the shops, or what they said on the street, or what any- 
body said; God will settle matters on that day. And so 
I say with the Apostle Paul that I do not care what the 
people say or think, when I have done Avhat I believe is 
right and my conscience tells me is right. Furthermore, 
we need not even trust to our own conscience at all times. 
The apostle says here : "For I know nothing by myself ; 
yet am I not hereby justified : but He that judgeth me, is 
the Lord." 

I hear so many people say: If we just live according 
to conscience, we will be all right. Those poor old 
mothers of the Moabites, take their dear little children 
from their OAvn breasts and lay them into the red-hot arms 



THIRD SUNDAY IN ADVENT. 49 

of Moloch to satisfy conscience. Is it right? There are 
men right here in this city who would think they were 
committing an unpardonable crime if they were to eat 
meat on Friday. Is that right? I would have you to re- 
member that while no man should do anything contrary to 
conscience, that, on the other hand, conscience is often in 
error and may be educated to wrong as well as right. The 
Apostle Paul said, I am not going to be judged by you 
Corinthians; I am not going to be judged by the people in 
this day; my Judge is coming on that last great day, 
and when we stand before Him, the question will not 
be. Is it Appollos, or is it Paul, or is it Peter; on 
that day the question will be. Did you repent of your 
sins, and did you believe in Christ, and were you faithful 
unto Him until death? Paul virtually says to those 
Corinthians, I have little patience with you old babes; 
you have been quarreling and having your strife to tear 
down the kingdom of God instead of repenting and trying 
to build it up, and my message not only to this congrega- 
tion to-night, but to every congregation in the world, is 
this, instead of trying to find a little party here and a 
little party there, to stir up a faction here and a faction 
there to hurt Christ, the thing to do is to get dOAvn on your 
knees, look into your own hearts through the law of God, 
and find your own faults and 3'Our own sins, and repent of 
them, and pray for the rest of us and help to work together 
for the spreading of God's kingdom on earth, instead of 
stirring up strife against the Lord and Master who died to 
purchase His church. 

In conclusion, let me call attention to the fifth verse 
of our text : ^'Therefore judge nothing before the time^ 
until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hid- 
den things of darkness, and will make manifest the 
counsels of the hearts : and then shall every man have 
praise of God." Judge nothing before the time, until the 
Lord come, for then all deeds will come to light; all 
thoughts will become visible, and all will get all the praise 
they deserve. Oh, what a thought to take home with you. 
This as Advent. We are not only thinking now of tne 

4 



50 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

Christ that shall be born, but we are thinking now of the 
Christ that has been born and we commemorate His birth 
and think of His coming to judge the quick and the dead; 
and when that day comes, I tell you, my friends, there 
will be some deeds uncovered that Avill astonish us all. On 
that day it will be seen how men looked up to in the world 
have gone to the euchre party and there have won the 
affections of other men's wives, and today are living in 
adultery with them. On that day we Avill discover what it 
means to have the public dance in the hands and in the 
realm of associations in which there are preachers and 
professed Christians; and we will discover on that day 
how preachers and deacons and members of churches were 
walking hand in hand, brother with brother, to help ruin 
and damn immortal souls. On that day it will be seen 
how skeletons will be brought out of closets that will make 
men tremble and weak, and make them ask the question, 
Will not the mountains fall over us and cover us? But 
on that great Judgment Day, when death has been con- 
quered forever, what good would it do if the mountains 
did fall on you, if under them you could never die? On 
that day there will be revelations made of which you never 
dreamed. Oh, what foolishness for people to act in such 
-a way as to think it will never be seen. The whole life is 
going to be uncovered on that day, and the ungodly, 
damnable deeds that men have done, Avill stand before our 
eyes. Nay, on that great day some things will come forth 
that you thought never could come forth, even on the 
judgment day — 

^^ . . who both will bring to light the hidden things of 
darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the 
liearts." There are counsels held to-day in upper rooms 
that are contrary to God's Holy Word ; there are counsels 
held in lower rooms that are contrary to the voice of the 
Holy Spirit; but the Avorst of all counsels are those tnat 
have the devil presiding over them in the hearts of men, 
and have never been uttered by the tongue; and on that 
day tliose counsels shall be exposed, and on that day, 
thanks be to God, you Avill all get the praise jou deserve. 
We are constantly fearing that Ave may have done some- 



THIRD SUNDAY IN ADVENT. 51 

thing good and some one never heard it; we are afraid 
the world doesn't understand us, and does not understand 
how noble we are, and how good we are. The Lord assures 
us on that great day when He does come, He will give us 
all the praise we deserve. "And then shall every man have 
praise of God." I am glad to know there is no man on 
earth so low and so mean that there is not a good spot in 
him ; I am glad to know there is no one on earth, on the 
Judgment Day, no difference how mean and low he has 
been, that God will not hold up some little thing he said 
or did and sliow it to the whole universe, as much as to 
say, He did these things, and I give him credit for them ; 
but on that day the question Avill not be. What did you do, 
or what did you not do ; the question Avill be more largely 
this : You did sin and you know it ; by your omission and 
by your commission, and you did hear there was only one 
Savior, Jesus Christ, and I was preached to you, and you 
know that i^ou heard it, that only through Me could you 
find eternal life, and some of you know, you had the op- 
portunity to accept Me, and you rejected Me; and now 
you must all bow your knees before Me in heaven and 
on earth, and under the earth ; every knee shall how. And 
those that are saved shall bow before Him in heaven for- 
ever, and the lost shall bow their knees and take eternal 
farewell into hell, and that is the end of it. This is God's 
Word, and if you have never heard a sermon before and 
shall never hear another one, I say to you before you leave 
to-night, for the blood of your own skirts would be upon 
my shoulders if I did not tell 3^ou the truth, if you do not 
repent of your sins and trust wholly and solely in Jesus 
Christ and unite with His Church, purchased with His 
blood, you have no hope of salvation. This is Gospel ; this 
is not the storv of an old babe. Amen. 



FOURTH SUNDAY IN ADVENT. 

Precious Presents From Paul in Prison. 

Phil. 4:4-7. 

REJOICE in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. Let your 
moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be 
careful for nothing ; but in everything by prayer and supplica- 
tion with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. 
And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your 
hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Dearly Beloved in Christ: 

That was a memorable night Avhen the Apostle Paul 
at Troas saw in a vision a man standing before him and 
€rying out : Come over into Macedonia and help us ! Up 
to that hour in the year 53 there was no Christian Church 
in all Europe. The apostle obeyed the voice, went over 
to Philippi, and there, through a woman, Lydia of Thya- 
tira, the door was opened for the Church of God in 
Europe. It was not long until the Apostle Paul and Silas 
were thrown into prison. A young lady who had been 
practicing divination for the financial support of her mas- 
ters, ran after the Apostle Paul until he turned around 
and cried to that spirit to come out of her, and from that 
moment her masters stirred up a riot, which resulted in 
the arrest and the throwing not only into prison, but into 
the inmost prison, and into the stocks, these two men of 
God. There they sat in the midnight hour with their 
feet fast in the stocks, happy as they could be in Christ, 
singing songs of praise until God Almighty shook the 

52 



FOURTH SUNDAY IN ADVENT. 53 

jjrisou, threw the bars of the gates down and loosed the 
bauds. The jailer was awakened and cried out: What 
is wroug in this jail? Yea, he was about to take his own 
life, when Paul cried out: Do thyself no harm; we are 
iiU here. Then the jailer, recognizing that he was in the 
1 lands of the Almighty God, fell down before Paul and 
Silas and said: Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And 
they answered : Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and 
thou shalt be saved, and thy house. A few moments 
more, and the jailer Avas washing the stripes of the men, 
wlio had been whipped before they Avere put into the 
stocks, and in return Paul and Silas taught them the 
Word of God, and baptized them that same hour of the 
niglit. And there the Church of God was built and 
establislied on the Rock of Ages, in a prison, by the 
Apostle Paul, who heard the voice: Come over into 
Macedonia and help us. Ten years passed by, but these 
Pliilippians will never forget that first missionary. Paul 
was a most independent man. Although he taught as no 
other apostle did, the necessity of paying the ministry 
well, that they might give their whole time to the salva- 
tion of souls, yet himself, in order that the Church might 
receive no wrong impression, labored and toiled with 
his own hands for a living, and preached the Gospel when- 
ever opportunity was given, and only from churches like 
the one at Philippi did he ever accept presents. Ten years 
l)assed, and Paul was down in another prison, in Rome. 
The little Philippian church sent a messenger down there 
with gifts, and Paul was just as happy in the prison at 
Rome as he was in the prison at Philippi, and there he 
wrote this beautiful epistle, which is full of joy from 
l)eginning to end. The Avhole message to the Philippians 
can be summed up in a few words : I am happy in the 
prison at Rome, and I want you to be happy who were 
established in a prison when God Almighty shook it up 
there ten years ago. 

We are standing this evening before the threshold 
of another coming Christmas, and I want to give you 
tonight 



54 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 



PRECIOUS PRESENTS FROM PAUL IN PRISON. 

I am sure you would be glad to get two beautiful 
presents from the Apostle Paul, and here they are: 

I. A Christmas harp. 
II. A Christmas song. 

I. A Cliristmas harp. I would have you notice the 
strings and the strength of this harp. 

1. ''And the peace of God, Avhich passeth all under- 
standing, shall keep your hearts and minds through 
Christ Jesus." The peace of God! In those words I find 
the strings to this beautiful Christmas liarp. A harp 
means music, and it means harmony, and perfect liarmony 
can never be found on earth until we have the peace of 
God ; and the peace of God is the peace that we have with 
God and with our fellow men. You will remember that 
when Isaiah spoke of the coming Savior, he said His 
name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty 
God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. He 
was known as the Prince of Peace long before Isaiah 
wrote those beautiful words. He was known as the 
Prince of Peace bv the angels when thev sang that song 
on the morning of creation. When the angels came and 
sang for the shepherds, each one did not sing his own 
song; they sang a song that Avas harmony; a song of tlie 
same words, and they ran like this : Glory to God in the 
highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. In 
other words the angels knew that the little Child born in 
Bethlehem Avas the promised Prince of Peace; and they 
knew that He Avas the one Mediator betAA-een God and 
man ; they knew that He Avas the only one that ever was, 
or ever Avould be, Avho could make x>eace betAveen a just 
and righteous God and a lost and condemned sinner who 
has enmity against God. And so this one Mediator, this 
Prince of Peace, with His hand divine held to the Father, 
and with His hand human took hold of our race and 
said : The Son of man is come to seek and to saA e that 
which was lost. The Prince of Peace! You and I are by 
nature lost; you and I are by nature haters of everything-^ 



FOURTH SUNDAY IN ADVENT. 55 

liiat 18 glorious and liol}^ in God's sight, but here comes 
tlu^ Prince of Peace and works faith in our hearts, and 
by that faitli we take hold of Jesus as the only Savior, 
and Avhen Ave have Him as our Savior, then we have got 
His righteousness, and having His righteousness we come 
home to the Father in Jesus Christ. We learn in the 
Word of God that when a man has been baptized into 
•Christ he has put on Christ. If it were possible for one 
of you to put on my child, you could come into my home 
and live with me as my child. The very moment you and 
I accept Jesus Christ as our Savior and are baptized in 
His name, we put Him on, and, having Him on, we come 
home, and His Father is now our Father, and we have 
peace AVitli God; and that is the first string on the harp 
that Paul sent as a Christmas gift to the Church at Phil- 
ippi, and it is the same string he sends on the harp to you 
and to me as a Christmas gift in 1904. 

But a harp with onh^ one string is not a good harp. 
The peace of God is a string also that brings peace be- 
tween man and man. In the dajs Avhen the angels sang: 
Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will 
toward men, the nations of the world Avere at war with 
each otlier; then every nation was trying to fight its Avay 
witli tlie sword and to win more territory by cutting into 
the wounds that let out the blood. You all know the 
history of the world has been Avritten with a pen dipped 
in blood; l)ut you also know that Avhere the Spirit of God 
reigns, man is opposed to Avar. They tell us that the 
Cliurch itself has had a thirty years' AA^ar. Suppose it 
lias. T will tell you in the first place that that thirty 
years- war Avas not carried on by the people who kncAv 
the Gospel of Christ, but aa as carried on by people Avho 
had mixed their religion with paganism. But suppose 
it Avere true that the Christian Church had a thirty 
years' war, Avhat is that in comparison with the six thou- 
sand years' Avar that the devil and the world have had? 
The Lord, our God, I repeat it, wherever He can plant 
His Spirit in the souls of men, plants there a conscience 
that is noAv Aoid of offense and can go home to the Father; 
bur by that same conscience, when God has made peace 



56 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

between me and Him, I want peace with niv fellow-man. 
I know of no better test of true Christianity than simph' 
the desire for peace. Whenever you find me trying to 
make war with my brother, you can make up your mind 
I am at war with God. Whenever you can show me am^ 
one desiring to stir up anything else but peace, you can 
make up your mind, there is something wrong between 
that one yet and God. A true child of God wants peace 
with the Father, and peace with his fellow-men. I do 
not mean to say by this that when we are true Christians 
that everybody loves us. Indeed that is not true. The 
Lord Jesus Christ said to His disciples that they should 
be hated; that they should be persecuted; and Jesus 
Christ Himself was hated and persecuted, and was killed 
by people who had false religions; consequently I tonight 
come to you with this admonition : Let us not enter 
upon the following Christmas with hatred in our hearts 
toward any one; let us get rid of the spirit of revenge. 
Oh, may the Apostle Paul from his prison in Rome send 
you his harp tonight, and that harp is peace with God 
and peace with your fellow-men. 

2. We have now noticed the strings of this harp; 
let us notice its strength. "And the peace of God, which 
passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and 
minds through Christ Jesus." The keeper is always sup- 
posed to be stronger than the thing kept, and here we- 
are told that this peace of God is so strong, that it shall 
keep our hearts and keep our minds, and all this through 
Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ being the Son of God, is 
the Almighty God : and this peace coming from the Prince 
of Peace, is as Almighty as Christ Himself; therefore if 
you have got the peace of God of which I speak, you liave 
got a harp so strong that it holds the heart and holds the 
mind, and when it holds the heart, it holds a very slippery 
thing. As I have told you often, the heart of man is very 
deceitful; the heart of man is one of the hardest things 
in the world to hold, but the peace of God can hold it, 
and the peace of God through Jesus Christ can keep it 
pure and keep it undivided, and make it rich. When 
temptations come to the one who has peace with God, he 



FOURTH SUNDAY IN ADVENT. 57 

ssays. Away with your temptations; there was a time 
when I coukl have been tempted with this or with that 
offer, but now I have the peace of God in my heart; away 
with your offer; luy lieart now says away with anything 
that will disturb the peace that I have with my God. 
Not only does it keep the heart pure, but it keeps it 
undivided. A man who has not got the peace of God is 
<ilways living a divided life; one day trying to do this, 
and the next trying to do that; one day he makes up his 
mind to be a better Christian, and the next day seeing 
the promise of gain by committing a little sin, he goes 
and commits it, never exactly sure where he stands; but 
when a nmn lias the peace of God in his heart, that heart 
says, Now I am kept by the peace of God; now my heart 
is undivided; my whole attention now is homeward aiui 
heavenward ; I have no continuing city here, but I seek 
one to come, and anything that will keep me away from 
my church, from my God, from my communion with God 
in heaven, must go away; mj heart is held by the harp 
sent from the prison b}' Paul. 

It is not only an undivided, but a rich heart. When 
tlie Holy Spirit takes hold of a man's heart. He fills that 
heart with Himself, and from that moment he is rich in 
God. Have you never noticed how poor some rich peo- 
ple are? Wasn't that man a poor man who tore dow^n 
his houses and barns and built larger, and said to his 
soul. Now, my soul, rest in peace, eat, drink and be merry, 
and so on; that night God came to him and said. Thou 
fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Wasn^t 
that a poor, rich man? And wasn't that man wlio sat 
upon the throne dressed in purple, not willing to go down 
to the gate and even alleviate the hunger of poor Lazarus, 
wasn't he rich in this world? When he went down to 
hell and cried out to Abraham to send Lazarus to fetch 
a drop of w^ater to cool his burning tongue, wasn't that 
rich fool poor? Poor Lazarus lying down at the steps 
of the rich king, Avas rich because he had in that heart of 
his the peace of God; and the rich man on the throne was 
poor because he had not peace with his God. There you 



58 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

get the strength of this beautiful harp through Jesus 
Christ. 

It not only keeps the heart, but it keeps the mind. 
*^And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, 
shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.'' 
Keep the mind! I do not know of anything sadder in all 
the world than to say of one of the family, he has lost 
his mind. Kather would I foUoAv one of my family 
to the grave than to take that one to the hospital for the 
insane, and yet you and I may soon be called upon to 
take some of our dearest ones to that hospital. It is no 
disgrace, as people used to think, to find people mentally 
sick; you can become mentally sick just as quickly as 3^ou 
can become physically sick, and some of the smartest peo- 
ple in the world may soon be where it must be said of 
them, they have lost their minds; but the thought that 
I want to impress upon jou is this : Not all who have 
lost their minds are in the State Hospital. It sometimes 
hurts some people to tell them if they are not Christians, 
that they are insane. I do not mean they are insane from a 
worldly standpoint, but I do mean that from a spiritual 
standpoint a man living in this world, if he does not believe 
lljfe Word of God, he is spiritually insane; his mind is lost 
until it is found by the peace of God, and when the peace 
of God has found your mind, it holds it, and then, my 
friends, you have got something that surpasses even your 
own understanding. '^And the peace of God, which pass- 
eth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds 
through Christ Jesus." The understanding is not greater 
than the mind, but there is a peace of God which is 
greater than your understanding, and consequently 
greater than your mind and, therefore, can hold your 
mind and keep it. You need not go very far to see these 
things. Take the history of the Apostle Paul himself; 
the Apostle Paul as an attorney could have made his 
mark as a statesman; the Apostle Paul as a linguist 
could have made his mark in some great university; the 
Apostle Paul as a plain citizen of Eome might have been 
free and held the multitudes under his swaying voice as 
a politician; the Apostle Paul, with all his gifts, might 



FOURTH SUNDAY IN ADVENT. 59 

have accuiinilated wealtli ; but instead of that he j»oes 
inn into the woi'kl and allows himself to be stoned, and 
whipped and scourged, thrown into prison, treated worse, 
the world A\'ould say, than a dog; and yet all this time 
he is as joyful as a bird, singing songs of praise, sending 
out messages of joy all over the world. Do you under- 
stand that? The Avorld does not. It surpasses all under- 
standing. But there is one thing in that great heart that 
some peo])le never have, he has peace with God, and no 
difference whether he is put into jail at Philippi, or 
thrown into prison along the island of Miletus; whether 
he is swimming for his life, or has the serpent hanging 
on his arm, no difference Avhere Paul is, he has peace 
with God, and that peace makes him willing to endure^ 
all things for Christ's sake, as he says here: Not that I 
speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatso- 
i'ViH' state I am, therewith to be content. I know both 
how to be abased, and I knoAv hoAv to abound: everyw^here 
and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to 
be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do 
all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." There 
you have tlie mind of Paul, held by the peace of God 
wliich ])assetli all understanding. 

You need not go over to the prison in Kome to find 
this demonstration of the wonderful power of peace; you 
<.-an find it in your own lives. I have in mind tonight a 
4lear, sweet mother, hapi^y as any mother that ever 
walked on earth; slie has no income; she depends day 
l)y day wholly and fully on God; today He sends a friend 
here, another one tomorrow, to give her a dime or a dollar, 
and she lives right on as happy as any person on earth 
can be. It passeth all understanding. People not having 
the peace of (lod as she has, would cry out: What will 
I do to live? Where will I get my clothes? What shall I 
eat? TTow shall I keep warm? worrying day and night; 
but this woman, held by the peace of Crod, which passeth 
all understanding, has her mind wrapped up in a power 
that is in the hand of the Almighty God. This, my 
friends, is the Christmas harp that the Apostle Paul 
srMids firnii the ]nison as a present to you and to me. 



60 . THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

II. Together with this harp from the Apostle Paul 
comes another gift from him, and that is a Ohristmas^ 
song, with its substance and its singers. 

1. "Eejoice in the Lord alway : and again I say, Re- 
joice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The 
Lord is at hand.'' The substance, then, of this song, is: 
Rejoice forever in the Lord; and The Lord is at hand. 

There is no question, my friends, about the fact that 
every person loves to enjoy himself. There is no one in 
this audience who does not seek enjoyment, and who does- 
not seek the greatest enjoyment, and I Avould be the last 
man on earth to try to rob you of the greatest enjoyment 
which you have; but there is one thing I love to do, and 
that is to lift people above the Ioav enjoyments to higher 
enjoyments; above enjoyments that are only temporary 
and lead to death, to enjoyments that are high and can be 
kept up forever. Paul never was opposed to joy. In- 
deed, as I said, this epistle is full of rejoicing in the Lord. 
"Rejoice in the Lord alway : and again I say, Rejoice.'' 
If there ever was a happy man on earth, it was the ilpos- 
tle Paul. The Apostle Paul never complained that he 
could not play euchre any more; he never complained 
that he was forbidden to dance an}^ more. You could 
hardly imagine the Apostle Paul enjoying a good euchre 
game; you can hardly imagine him enjoying a public 
dance, and much less a round dance; you can hardly 
imagine him sitting down in prison with a big long pipe 
and smoking, and wondering why the Church does not 
prosper; you cannot imagine the Apostle Paul ever ask- 
ing the question, How can I have greater enjoyment than 
I now have? There was no power in heaven nor on earth, 
anywhere, that could rob him of his joy after he found 
peace with God; consequently he wants to send the song 
out into the world that we should raise above these low 
things. Just because a king was crazy one time and 
learned how to play euchre, is there any reason why all 
the Christian people in the world should act that game 
out again and find their highest enjoyment there? We 
are not trying to rob the people of certain joy. Why 
should we get our highest enjoyment in the pleasures 



FOURTH SUNDAY IN ADVENT. 61 

that can be engaged in by lunatics all over the world? 
I have stood at the doors of the insane asylum at 
Columbus and have watched lunatics dance. I have 
never seen any Christian that could dance any bet- 
ter; never. Do not allow yourself to call a thing 
that lunatics can do; do not allow yourself to call a 
thing a monkey can be taught to do, or that an elephant 
can be taught to do, your highest enjoyment. The Apos 
tie Paul called attention to the fact that there is a joy 
that is above the animal; that there is a joy that is above 
little minds; that there is a joy so high that it will not 
only be above the low — and you all know that the lowest 
people in the world love to engage in the things I have 
mentioned — that there is a joy so high, I say, that man 
must get up b}^ the power of the Almighty God to enjoy 
it. AVliat I would love to do, as a man of God, is to invite 
you to the highest jo^^s that can be obtained, and these 
are the ones that have peace from heaven and peace to 
the earth, and shall abide when you have closed your eyes 
in death, with God forever and forever. Tlien let your 
joy be in the Lord forever; this is the first part of the sub- 
stance of this beautiful gift of Christmas song. 

And then, in the same connection, he says: "The 
Lord is at hand." One reason why the Apostle Paul was 
ahvays so happy, no difference where he was, was because 
lie realized the fact that he was never alone; that the 
God tluit called from heaven and said : Saul, Saul, why 
persecutest thou Me? was the same God that said: Lo, 
I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world; 
tiiat He was the same God who said : Where two or three 
are gatliered together in My name, there am I in the 
midst of them; the same God that sent a man in a vision 
and said : Come over into Macedonia and help us. Paul 
obeyed the call and went over there and established the 
Church. When they put him in the prison and fastened 
liis feet into the stocks, Paul did not cry; he did not 
worry at midnight when others were sleeping; he recog- 
nized the fact that there were three of them in prison, 
Paul and Silas, and God; and consequently he said, The 
Lord is at hand, and T will sing a song of praise to Him; 



62 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

and while he Avas singing that song of praise, God 
Almighty, who was with him, took hold of that prison 
and shook it, and thereby shook Europe; and by shak- 
ing Europe, shook the world. God was with him. That 
is the song for Christmas that Paul would send out from 
the prison to you and to me. 

Not only is the Lord at hand in Philippi, but in 
Rome. It made no difference whether in prison, or on 
the ship, or on the island of Miletus, or in the prison at 
Rome, God was with him, and God being with him, he 
said. Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say, Re- 
joice." I believe the apostle Paul thought in his day that 
the world would not stand as long as it has already stood ; 
I think he looked in a vision beyond that day when the 
church should spread from land to sea, to that hour 
when Christ should come with all His holy angels again; 
I believe he thought the time was not far oi¥ when Christ 
should come to judge the quick and the dead, and there- 
fore cried out, ^'The Lord is at hand." If it was not very 
far off in those days of Paul, Oh, how much nearer it must 
be today ! We can all sing that song tonight, ^'The Lord 
is at hand." And now, that the Christmas spirit is 
moving the world, and the streets are crowded with the 
purchasers of gifts, and the church bells are already call- 
ing us to prepare to sing: "Christ is born," this song 
of Paul is especially appropriate : "The Lord is at hand." 
It will not be long until there will be such a Christmas 
as there never was before and never shall be again; when 
not onl}^ a few angels, but all the angels shall take part, 
and not only all the living, but all the dead shall rise, 
and we §hall stand before God face to face. Oh, Avhat 
a Christmas that will be! "The Lord is at hand." 

2. Let me call your attention a few moments to the 
singers. We have heard the substance of the song — what 
about the singers? In the first place they must let them- 
selves joyfully down, and then lift all their cares prayer- 
fully up. 

They must let themselves joyfully down. "Let your 
moderation be known unto all men." This word modera- 
tion has been translated many times, and there is no one 



FOURTH SUNDAY IN ADVENT. 63- 

word in English or in German that can express fnlly 
Avhat the (Ireek word means. Some good transhitors have 
translated it as gentleness; some as being affable; some 
as being meek; some tender, careful; avoiding all ex- 
tremes; not trying to make everybody think as you do 
about things that are not settled by the Word of (jod. 
In other words, there are some peoi)le who are always 
very unhappy for the reason that they have ideas of their 
own and think that everybody must think just as they do,, 
and if they do not, they are in trouble. The apostle Paul 
says virtually this: There are some things that are sett- 
led by the eternal AVord of God; hold fast to them until 
you die; but when it comes to things perlaining to ques- 
tions of right or wrong, outside of the moral Ja>v; when 
it comes to the things of this Avorld, dealing with differ- 
ent individuals, under different environments, learn ta 
be all things to all men; learn to be moderate in all things, 
and let this moderation be known unto all men. In 
other, words, let yourself down joyfully, and do not stand 
up as the only lord of lords and king of kings, but rather 
as a poor humble sinner saved by the grace and mercy 
of (jod, with your heart and mind held h}y His peace, and 
if you do so, then you will have a joy that will make you 
sing; that will make you happy forever and forever. 

And right in this connection I will say that the way^ 
to be really happy, is always to lift your cares up by 
prayer. ''Be careful for nothing; but in everything hj 
prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your re- 
quests be made known unto God. '' There are so many 
people in the present day calling themselves Christians 
who seem to even boast of being in trouble; full of cares; 
wondering why God did this and why He did that; weep- 
ing and moaning and finding fault with Providence. I 
have called attention to this matter before, but whenever 
the Word of God presents it again, I shall present it 
again. There is nothing that has hurt the church of God 
so much as the inconsistency of professed Christians. 
AFinisters of the Gospel, who proclaim the everlasting 
Gospel of peace, when they are in trouble sometimes act 
lik(» little children; and some times professed Christians, 



64 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

who all their lives have sung, "When we cannot see the 
way, let us trust and still obey'' the first time they are 
in trouble they are downhearted, believing that God has 
forsaken them, worried about this and that; and I say 
again, nothing has ever hurt the church more than the 
inconsistent actions of professed Christians. Why is it 
that some Christians have got so much trouble all the 
time? It is because they are trying to put their troubles 
down, and whenever you try to put your troubles down 
they will rise again. Troubles are like rubber balls; 
when you knock them down, they will bounce up. There 
is only one way to get rid of troubles, and that is to push 
them in the direction they want to go. They want to 
rise. Then lift them up, and hold them up to the throne 
'Of God and keep them there forever. "Be careful for 
nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication 
with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto 
God." The Christmas song must have that thought in it : 
Whatever your trials and troubles are, lift them up to 
the throne of God. There are four expressions in that 
verse I would have you remember: The one is prayer in 
general. Commune with your God. God talks to you 
through His Word. You talk to Him with your prayers in 
general. But, my friends, there is more in this than simply 
a prayer. "But in everything by prayer and supplica- 
tion.'' Prayer is talking with God; supplication is plead- 
ing with God; prayer is conversing pleasantly with God; 
supplication is begging with tears of God. The way to 
lift those troubles away from you forever is to thank God 
that you saw them and had them. I know from my OAvn 
personal experience, and I proclaim this as the rule for 
every Christian: No difference what your trials are, 
whether sickness, financial loss, or death, the first thing 
you must do is to remember that God intended that aifiic- 
tion for a purpose. It was a training for you; it was to 
lead you nearer heaven. The first thing you must do 
with your troubles is to get down on your knees in order 
to get unSer them, thank God for them, and rise with 
them and supplicate them to heaven, and keep them there. 
And then; as a final act in your prayers, tell God just 



FOURTH SUNDAY IN ADVENT. 65 

exactly what you want, and let your requests be made 
known unto God. Whatever trials and troubles you have 
got, whatever prayers you have that you desire answered, 
go to Him in all simplicity and say : O my God, this is 
the thing that troubles me; this is the thing I want light 
on; show me day by day how to go, how to live, how to 
pray, and I will trust Thee day by day; and then, when 
you pray as I have told you tonight, with the peace of God 
all around your heart and all around your mind, surpass- 
ing all understanding, you will rise with a new life and 
a new joy, and you will be happy — happy through your 
life, and after death happy forever. This, my friends, is 
another present from Paul in prison. 

In conclusion, I see as I look back in history a beau- 
tiful constellation of three bright stars, that may help 
you and me to receive these presents joyfully. I see in 
history the names of three mothers : Nonna, Monica, and 
Anthusa. 

Nonna is a star in the constellation of history that 
will help every mother to know how to live. She was the 
wife of a heathen of Capadocia; her desire was that she 
might some time or other give to the world a noble son; 
she believed it was all wrong as a Christian to mourn. 
Her prayer for a son was answered. She not only received 
a son, but a daughter and tw^o sons. The first one she 
called Gregory and the second she named Caesar. When 
little Gregory was born, she ran to the temple where her 
own heathen husband had become a minister of the Gos- 
pel, and laid his little hands on the Word of God, and 
prayed that he might be a mighty man of God. Little 
Gregory had all the traits of his mother; Caesar the traits 
of his father. These two boys grew^ up, and one became a 
mighty statesman and physician; the other became one 
of our great church fathers. When Gregory the father 
died, after whom the son was named, this son preached 
liis funeral sermon; the mother went to the funeral, not 
with black on her hat; not with a black dress on, but she 
clothed herself in white; she did not shed tears; she sang 
songs of praise to the heavenly Father. Her impress on 
5 



66 . THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

her cliildren and on the nation was so great that her name 
has come down in history as one of the great Godly moth- 
ers. When her hour came to die there was only one of 
the family left besides herself, and that Avas the one whoS(t 
little hands were laid on the Bible and he himself dedi- 
cated to God. When her last hour came, she went to the 
temple and held to the altar with one hand and w^th tha 
other lifted up said: '^God be merciful to me, my King 
Jesus," and went home — A bright star in the constella- 
tion of mothers. 

Right in this same connection let us not forget Mon 
ica, the woman born in Africa in the year 332, who mar- 
ried a man who was rich and famous — Patricius. Her 
prayer Avas that she might give to the world a son who 
might be a great power. Early in the boy's career the 
father died, himself having been brought to Christ by 
this Godly wife. This boy, at the age of seventeen, 
plunged into sin. He was a brainy young man, but in- 
stead of supporting his mother as Ave Avould expect a 
young man to do when the father is dead, he deserted her 
and plunged deeper and deeper into sin. Monica prayed 
for that boy day and night, and at last she Avas so dis- 
couraged that she felt like giving him up as a lost man. 
Standing one day in the presence of a great bishop, the 
tears rolling doAvn oA^er her face, she said : ''I have just 
about given up praying for uia^ boy ;" but the bishop said, 
''Monica, no son of those tears can ever be lost," and she 
took new courage. But time passed on, and she gave up 
a second time. That night she went to bed and she had 
a dream, and in that dream she AA^as crying bitterly; she 
saw the vision of a young man coming up to her bed saying 
to her: ''Woman, why Aveepest thou?" She answered: 
"I have a son ; his father is in heaven, and the boy is lost, 
and I can not help but weep." The vision said: "Weep 
not, thy son standeth here," and she opened her eyes, and 
there stood Augustine by the side of her bed. She took 
new courage and prayed again, and again and again, for 
nine long years she followed that boy Avith her prayers. 
At last at the age of tAA^enty-seven he said : "I am going 
to leave you, mother; I can stand your prayers no longer; 



FOURTH SUNDAY IN ADVENT. 67 

I am going to Kome," and started dowYi to the shore of 
the Mediterranean Sea, but who was standing by his 
side but Mother Monica. "I will follow you wherever 
jou go." Evening came, and the boy, in order to deceive 
his mother, said, "I am not going to Rome,'' and the 
mother went over to the temple and thanked God that 
the boy now had returned ; and while she was in the tem- 
ple praying, he jumped on board and crossed the big water 
to Home. She came back, and the boy was gone, but her 
prayers had not ceased; she prayed God to show her the 
way, and the mother gathered up her money and went 
from Africa to Rome, followed him day by day until, at 
the age of thirty-three, and her age of fity-six, she had 
brought liim to the Savior, and, baptized in the name of 
the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, they had resolved to go 
back to Africa. A fever overtook the mother; nine days 
«he lay there helpless; the boy, a child of God, watching 
over her — the same l)oy that God showed her in a vision 
long before — this son of prayer, who became the great- 
est church father; and on tlie ninth day, instead of going 
to Africa, she went home to her God. — Another star in 
the constellation of Christian mothers. 

I have in mind still one more, and that is Anthusa. 
Anthusa was tlie wife of the great General Secundus, who, 
jilso a heathen, was brought to the Savior by this praying 
mother. Her prayer was: ''O God, give me a son of this 
great General Secundus." Soon after the general died, 
and when she looked down into his grave she said : ''I 
shall love thee, my htisband, in thy son," and from that 
day she took that son to her bosom, and prayed for liim 
day and night until lie was fifteen years of age, and then 
she was called home. This son never forgot that mother's 
prayers; he became the patriarch of Constantinople; he 
became the greatest orator of the age; he proclaimed the 
Odspel of Christ with power such as was not proclaimed 
to the days of Luther, and the world said he is golden- 
uiouthed, and consequently gave him that beautiful name 
— Chrysostomus. 

Let us learn from these mothers how to live; let us 
learn from them how to pray ; let ns learn from these 



68 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

mothers how to celebrate Christmas, and how to rejoice. 
Let us learn from Nonna, if we mnst i^o to the fnneral, 
to go dressed in white; if we mnst go to the fnneral, take 
the hymn-book and praise God for the higher life of 
those who have passed beyond. Oh, the darkness of the 
faith that will moan when the kind hand of God has 
lifted our dear ones to the throne on high! May the day 
soon come when the Christian Church will rise above the 
low level of the heathen, when we will tear off the black 
robes of sorrow, and put on the white garment of peace, 
and rise, with songs of praise, at the graves of our dead. 
Amen. 

PRAYER. 

O God, our heavenly Father, we thank Thee for that great Christ- 
mas gift, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and the Son of man, the one 
Mediator between God and man. We th'ank Thee for the peace which 
we have through justification in Him. And now we pray Thee, O Lord 
and God, that Thou wilt impress the message of the evening upon the 
hearts of all those who have heard it. Lord forbid that any who have 
heard this message tonight, should pass this Christmas as a child of the 
devil. Do Thou give us Thy Holy Spirit, and convince us of sin, and of 
righteousness and of judgment. Help us to see that there is a better 
way to live and an only right way to live, and that is as a true child 
of God. Oh, do Thou help that we may all at this coming Christmas 
have Christ as ours, in our homes and in our hearts, and as the message 
to proclaim to our fellow-men. Lord God, do Thou visit the homes of 
the poor and the needy everywhere, and move Thy children to be kind 
to all who need special kindness. Help us, heavenly Father, to remember 
that it makes no difference whether the skin is black or white, whether 
from noble or fallen famihes, that the soul is precious, and that 1o 
care for one of these is to care for Christ Himself. Give us a fullness 
of faith, such as we never possessed before. Lift us into the realm of 
Thy spirituality which shall enable us to accept the gifts of Paul, the 
Christmas harp, and the Christmas song ; help us to play it with deft 
fingers and to sing it with a heart full of praise. We ask this all in 
the name of Jesus, who taught us to pray: 

Our Father who art in heaven ; Hallov/ed be Thy name ; Thy 
kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven; Give 
us this day our daily bread ; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation; 
But deliver us from evil; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



CHRISTMAS. 

The Wonder of All Wonders. 

Titus 2 :11-14. 

fOR the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all 
men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we 
should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world ; 
looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great 
God and our Savior Jesus Christ ; who gave Himself for us, that He 
might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar 
people, zealous of good works. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thv Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloi't'd in Christ: 

To st'e the number of people who have come here this 
icy evening into the temple of God would, in itself be very 
wonderful, were it not for the great truth that Jesus 
Christ is more wonderful. The prophet said : "His name 
sliall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, 
the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace;" and when 
3M)u. reuuMuber that all these names fit the newly born 
Christ-child in the crib of Bethlehem, it is not surprising 
tliat people should make a special effort to come to God's 
house, not only on Christmas, but any other day, to wor- 
ship Him, who is the only Savior of the Avorld. God is 
wonderful in every attribute. Creation is wonderful. Just 
imagine nothing in space but darkness, and God saying: 
Let tliere be light; and there was light. Wonderful! 
Imagine no earth in space and God saying. Let there be 
a world; and there are the hills and the mountains and 
that globe rolling in space, and nothing to hold it but the 
Word of God. Wonderful! Not only is creation wonder- 

69 



70 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

fill, but Providence is ANonderful. Some things have lost 
their wonder because of their ever-presence. When a man 
takes a grain of corn and plants it in the field, and from 
that one grain brings home in the fall an ear with a 
thousand grains, we seem to think there is nothing wonder- 
ful about that, and yet it is wonderful. If, this evening, 
I were to take some shot and plant them in a field, and 
in a few months b^- watering and hoeing those shot, you 
would discover a shot-gun groAving up, you would say that 
is wonderful ; and yet it would not be any more wonderful 
than for a grain of corn to bring a thousand grains of 
corn. We have not solved the mysteries around us any 
more than the mysteries imaginary. A man who sows his 
wheat and reaps his harvest, is reaping just as much a 
Avonder of God as he would if he planted Jews-harps and 
reaped pianos. We see the little bird as it sits on the 
nest in the tree over the little blue eggs, and in a short 
time Ave notice the mother-bird feeding the open mouths of 
her litle ones; and in a short time these little ones, Avitli 
feathers on their Avings, fly from branch to branch, and 
sing, and we forget that this is just as Avonaerful as that 
the planting of a violin should bring forth a piano to fly 
from Avorld to Avorld. Not only is Providence wonderful, 
but regeneration is Avonderful. When man by nature is an 
enemy of God, and yet, AAdthout any perceptible action on 
God^s part, he becomes a newly born man, loves God, and 
would die for him, it is AA^onderful. It has Avell been said 
by some theologians that regeneration is the greatest 
wonder there ever Avas; and yet there is another AVonder 
that possibly is even greater than regeneration. Before 
I give you the great Avonder of all wonders, I would call 
your attention to the fact that all the great acts of Christ 
Avere Avonderful. That the God-man should die on Cal- 
vary's hill is Avonderful. That the Rock of Ages, that plays 
with the stars on the ends of His fingers, should sleep in a 
rock is A\ onderful. That He should rise from the dead is 
NNonderf ul. That God, with outstretched hands should 
begin to ascend, higher and higher, until He goes home to 
the Father on Ascension Day, to sit on the right hand of 
ihe I'lither, there to remain and rule the universe until He 



CHRISTMAS. 71 

shall come to judge the quick and the dead, is wonderful. 
That on the day of Pentecost one hundred and twenty in 
prayer should hear a rushing and a sound as of a mighty 
storm, and tongues of fire sitting upon them, and in a 
sliort time these men should speak the languages of the 
world, and a few thousand of people should have been 
brought to the feet of Jesus, is wondei-ful. But, my 
friends, there never Avould have been a Pentecost; there 
never \>'()uld have been an ascension; there never w^ould 
have been a resurrection; there never would have been a 
crucifixion of Christ, had it not been for tlie Avonder of 
all wonders, the Incarnation of God. I invite you this 
morning to the manger of Bethlehem, to show you 

THE WONDER OF ALL AVONDERS; 

and the Avonder is this, that in that little box you find all 
the (/race (ind all the greatness of God. ^^For the grace 
of God, that bringeth sah^ation, hath appeared to all men;" 
and that same grace is called in another verse, the great 
God. ''Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious 
appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.^' 
NoAv the fact that Jesus Christ has in His little body in 
that little manger at Bethlehem all the grace of the great 
God, and the greatness of God in Himself, is the A\^onder 
of all wonders. Let us this morning go to that AVonder of 
all vsonders, and there 

L Li\e. 

IL Learn. 

TIL Look. 

IV. Labor. 

L Let us go there to live. "For the grace of God 
tliat bringeth salvation, hath appeared to all men.'' Jesus 
Christ, Avho lies in the crib at Bethlehem is the only way 
to heaven; He is the only Savior of the loorld; and He is 
in essenee the means of grace. 

1. I say, first of all, He is the only way to heaven. 
Wiien Jacob had taken the birthright from his brother 
Esau and slept Avith his head upon a stone, he saAv a ladder 



'72 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

reaching from earth to heaven and the angels of God 
ascending and descending, and we are told by one of the 
evangelists that that ladder was a type of Jesus Christ, 
with His two natures, on whom the angels of God ascend 
and descend, the only way to heaven. Christ Himself 
described that way when He said : I am the Way, the 
Truth and the Life, and no man cometh to the Father 
but by Me. Wonder of wonders ! A little child, in a little 
manger, in a little stable, in little Bethlehem, the great 
ladder that reaches to heaven! Is not that wonderful? 

Not only is He the only way to heaven, but He is tne 
only Savior of the world. "For the grace of God, that 
bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men." There is 
a difference of opinion as to whether "all men'' ought to 
depend on "appeared" or upon "bringeth," but it makes 
little difference which way we construct the sentence. In 
the one sentence it would read this way: For the grace 
of God that bringeth salvation to all men hath appeared; 
otherwise it would read as in our text : "For the grace 
of God that bringeth salvation liatli appeared to all men." 
In essence it is all the same. Tlie grace of God which 
has been from all eternity, before the foundation of the 
world was laid, exhibiting itself in the promise that a 
Savior would come, now has appeared. Here this grace 
lies in that little crib, and this grace is the salvation of 
all men, for every man that can be saved. The Apostle 
Paul, recognizing this fact, looked into tliat crib one time 
and wrote down words that never can be erased, because 
God said : Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My 
Word shall not pass away ; Avhen He said : There Is no 
other name under heaven given among men, whereby a 
man can be saved. At another time, looking into that crib 
and then up to the very throne of God, he said : Though 
we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other Gospel unto 
you than that which we have preached unto you, let him 
be accursed. Why? Because there is no other salvation 
for any man on earth than this wonder of all wonders, the 
Christ-child, born at Bethlehem. 

Now, my friends, in that crib, when you look again, 
vou see the essence of the means of s^race. Lutherans have 



CHRISTMAS. 73 

no trouble in knowing what we mean when we say ''mean^ 
of grace/' No man has ever been saved except by tiie- 
Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit never saved any man 
except through the means of grace. The means of grace 
are the Word of God and the holy sacraments — in the 
Old Testament circumcision and the passover ; in the New 
Testament, baptism and the Lord's supper; and of the 
means of grace it is said, there are three that bear record 
on eartli, the Spirit and the water and the blood, and 
these three agree in one. These three agree in the one 
Word. These three agree in the one little Child that lies 
in the crib of Bethlehem — the little God-man — for with- 
out Him there would be no Bible. Take Christ out of the 
prophecies and there is no Old Testament left. Take 
Christ out of the evangels and you have no evangels left. 
Take Christ out of the Acts of the Apostles and the mes- 
sengers of God are gone. Take Christ out of the Epistles 
and there is nothing left but empty words. Take Christ 
out of the Book of Kevelation and there is no revelation 
there. In other Avords, in the little crib at Bethlehem lies 
the Word of God that became flesh and dwelt among us, 
and without Him Avas not anything made that was made. 
AVonder of wonders ! There lies the very substance of holy 
baptism. That little Child, eight days old, is circumcised 
because He is still under the Old Testament laAv. When 
that little Child enters the ministry He is baptized because 
He enters the new covenant. In Him circumcision and 
baptism unite. In that little crib of Bethlehem the 
Paschal lamb and the Lord's Supper unite in this one 
Savior of the world. Tliere can be no baptism without 
Christ. Did you ever stop to think that AA^hen the Apostle 
Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, he ncA^er men- 
tioned the name of the Father at all, and did not mention 
tlie name of the Holy Spirit when he said: Repent and be 
baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ 
for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of 
the Holy Ghost. In other Avords, the Apostle Peter recog- 
nized the fact that there could not possibly be a baptism 
without Jesus Christ in it, wlio lies in the crib of Bethle- 
hem. And tlie same is true with reaard to the Lord's- 



74 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

Slipper. If the Lord's Supper were nothing but bread and 
wine, you could have it without Christ ; but in that little 
crib lies tlie God-man; in that little crib lies the One that 
gives Himself to you in the Lord's Supper; in that little 
crib lies the One that was in the Paschal lamb; in that 
little crib lies the One that comes to you and says, Take 
eat, this is My body; take drink, this is My blood. This 
is the AYonder of all wonders, that you can have all the 
means of grace, the way to heaven and the salvation of 
the whole world combined in that little manger at 
Bethlehem. 

My dear friends, this is the place to live. Up to the 
present time I have not even wished you a Merry Christmas 
as a congregation. One reason I have not done so before 
is this: Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy 
New Year amounts to nothing if you will not step up 
to this crib and look at the wonder of all wonders, and 
live. In other words, how can you Avish a man a Merry 
Christmas if you do not at the same time invite him where 
lie can live? How can a man be happy on Christmas when 
he is living the life of a child of the devil? Hoav can you 
have a Merry Christmas when you do not knoAv the only 
way that leads to heaven? How can a man be happy on 
Christmas when he does not know if he should die before 
the next day, whether he dies a child of the devil or a child 
of God. As I look around me to-day, I do not wish to leave 
this part of my sermon without a personal examination in 
every soul. I want every father in this house this evening, 
and every mother, and every son, and every daughter, to 
ask themselves this question: Do I live? Have I in me 
this morning the assurance of eternal life? As I look 
into the little manger and see the wonder of all wonders, 
is this Christ mine, and am I His? Wonder of wonders! 
We Avant to lii^e. I do not Avant a single soul to go out of 
this house this eA^ening, and then go out into the world, 
and go up to the Judgment, lost. For the sake of the 
mother who gave you birth; for the sake of your father 
Avho begat you ; for the sake of your wife in heaven ; for 
the sake of your dear little children on high ; for the sake 
of the prayers of the millions of people to-day for your 



CHRISTMAS. i O' 

salvation; for your own souFs sake, let me ask you now 
to come Avith me to the crib of Bethlehem and look at 
the little Child — the Wonder of all wonders. There lies 
all the grace of God and all the greatness of God, and if 
you cannot be saved there, 3^ou cannot be saved anywhere, 
for in that little crib lies the Child that is to die on 
Calvary's hill. He is your Savior. Accept Him. Loot 
and live. Look unto Me and be ye saved, all the ends of 
the earth, saith the Lord, for I am God, and besides Me 
there is none else. As I live, saith the Lord, I have no 
pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked 
should turn from his evil ways and live. 

II. And now that we live, let us also learn. "Teacii- 
ing us that, denying ungodliness and Avorldly lusts, we 
should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present 
world.'' 

When you step up to this little crib of Bethlehem, 
remember that there lies the Teacher of all teachers ; the 
honest Teacher; the Teacher that wants you to hate sin; 
to love righteousness; and to live aright in this present 
world. 

1. Denying ungodliness and Avorldly lusts, is the 
message of the Christ-child; and should Ave not learn to 
deny ourseh'es of sin and lust when this little Christ- 
child was Avilling to deny Himself heaA^en and all His 
glory to become our Savior? Oh, let me ask you this even- 
ing to hate sin. It Avas sin that compelled this holy Son 
of God to die for you and for me. Hoav can you love it? 
You may love a knife, but if you know that that knife has 
been murdering people in the past, you do not Avant to 
carry it in your pocket. Sin has murdered my Savior. 
Will you still loA^e it? Oh, hate sin. Learn this cA^ening, 
Avhile you behold this Wonder of wonders. Look and learn 
there, not only to hate sin, but to hate lust in all its forms. 
You say, I haA^e such a desire to do this, and to do that, 
^\ hich are wrong. EA^er^^ man on earth has his pet sins, 
the very sins that he loves best; those are the very sins 
that are the sins of lust, and these sins must be hated until 
you can separate yourself from them by the grace of God 
in the little crib of Betlilehem. Lust Avill never ijroAv at 



76 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

the foot of the cross of Jesus Christ. There are some 
plants that will grow nearly everywhere, but you cannot 
plant lust by the side of the cross and let it vine arouna 
and through the wounded hands of the Savior crucified. 
Oh, Avhenever you feel that this passion is getting ahead 
of 3^ou and leading you on to your special sin, whatever 
it may be, go quickly and learn of the great Teacher to 
despise lust and to hate it. 

On the other hand, learn of Him to love the things 
that are good and holy. We should live soberly and right- 
eously and godly. The word here translated "soberly," 
really means wise. Live wisely, live righteously and live 
godly. They were wise men who came from the east to 
behold the new born King. You were wise this evening 
for coming to God's house and hearing of this Wonder 
of Avonders. Only wise people will be saved. Those who 
reject salvation can never be called wise in this world, nor 
on the Judgment day, nor in hell. Live wisely, then. Do 
the right thing in the right time, every time. Live soberly 
and live righteously. The Psalmist sang : The Lord is 
my Shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie 
down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still 
waters. He restoreth my soul : He leadeth me in the paths 
of righteousness for His name's sake. That is the path I 
want you to walk on — the path of righteousness. Be- 
lieve in the new born King; accept His righteousness as 
your own, and then living, learn; learn to walk in His 
path, led by His hand, with one question before your eyes 
day and night. Is it right? Is it right? I know of no 
better advice to give you all on this. Christmas evening 
than, first of all, to live in Christ, and then put the ques- 
tion before you in everything that is to be determined in 
the future. Is it right? If it is not right, don't do it, for 
God's sake, don't do it. If you are not sure whether it is 
right or not, don't do it; the very fact that you are not 
sure, is an evidence that it is wrong. When a man does 
absolutely right, he knows it, and there is no question about 
it. These debatable questions are all wrong, just because 
they are debatable. We do not debate whether it is right 
to murder or not ; we do not debate whether it is right to 



CHRISTMAS. 77 

honor father and mother or not ; we do not debate whether 
it is right to lie or not. Right is plain, and the answer 
comes back, Is it right? Yes, it is right. In God's name 
do it. If it isn't right, for God's salve quit it. Look at 
the Wonder of wonders this evening, and learn. 

And Avliile voii learn to liate sin, and to love righteous- 
ness and live godly, remember the time to do it is now. 
A kind of notion has come through false teachers, all over 
the world, that there is a great eternal progress beyond 
this life, and that no difference how we live, nor how we 
die, away out beyond the grave somewhere, sometime, Ave 
are going to reach the perfection of God Himself, and it 
is by the false lie that the devil has planted into the hearts 
of the people that hundreds and thousands are going down 
to hell day after day. This little Savior lying in the crib 
of Bethlehem would never have made His bed with tne 
cattle if there had been a salvation after the judgment. 
He never Avould have come here and appointed His 
apostles to preach the Gospel to the ends of the world 
saying, then shall the end come, if all this were only the 
beginning, and the end should come after a while. The 
Apostle Paul, recognizing this great truth, wrote to Titus 
saying: Live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this 
pi-esent world. Now is the time to live right, not in a 
thousand years from now. Now, the present world. Do 
you recognize the fact that right now there is a power in 
you to live others to hell or to heaven, by your very 
actions? Look at the Lord Jesus Christ; Pontius Pilate 
sitting before Him, our Savior a prisoner there, in perfect 
silence; the king with all his soldiers and all the powers 
of government back of him, stands and trembles. What 
makes Pilate tremble? Look at Daniel Webster making 
the greatest speech of his life. Edward Hale says that 
literally sparks emitted from his eyes. Where did those 
sparks come from? Look at the Apostle Paul, a prisoner, 
with chains on his hands, standing before king Agrippa, 
nnd Felix, and other rulers. Why should they fear this 
little, curley haired, hump shouldered, ugly, little Jew? 
Why should any government on earth be afraid of that 
little Paul? Felix trembled because Paul recognized the 



78 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

fact that he is living in the present world. In "1848 the 
cannon were staked on the main streets of Paris; a mot> 
was coming down the street; the mob did not fear the 
mouth of the cannon, nor the soldiers of France, but ran 
down into the face of the fire, killed the soldiers and 
turned the cannon the other wa}^, and were going on 
further down. At yonder square stands a little man with 
his hat off his head, his hand up-lifted. He stopped the 
Avhole mob. The captain said : "Stop, down there stands 
a man who has lived a righteous life for sixty lears. Let's 
hear what he has to say." That little man drove the whole 
mob back because he recognized the fact that sixty years 
of righteousness is more powerful than any mob. Tlie 
Apostle Paul has these facts in mind when he says to 
Titus: Lead the people to the crib of Bethlehem; show 
them all the grace of God and all the greatness of (xod, 
and fill them with that greatness until they become a 
power. A man who has love in his heart, will warm up 
everybody around him ; a man who has nothing but frozen 
icicles in his heart, will chill everybody. A man who is 
filled with light, is showing others how to live ; a man who 
is filled with darkness, is showing others how to go to 
destruction. And so I invite you all this evening to step 
up to this crib and hate sin, and love righteousness, and 
get -filled with a divine enthusiasm that shall make itself 
felt. 

And this divine enthusiasm is sometimes found in men 
who do not know it. We are told in history, that when the 
great Caesar Avas taken captive, they took him out on a 
vessel conducted by pirates; they took Caesar, the young 
man, put the chain around his arm, and tied him down to 
the oar of the galley. Caesar began his first day's work 
on that pirate ship laughing, telling jokes, declaiming and 
making liimself merry and all around him, until that 
evening they loosed his chains and permitted him to eat 
supper with the captain. The next day by his actions 
already he was the first mate of that little vessel. ' By 
showing the people that he understood more about the 
currents and about the sliores and about the paths to the 
vessels of wealth, I say, they made him mate of that vessel. 



CHRISTMAS. ' 79 

The third day he had won over all the soldiers and taken 
the captain, had taken the chain from his arm and put it 
around the arm of the captain and tied liim down to the 
galley oar. On the fourth day, as captain of that vessel, 
he took it as a prize into the Roman harbor. My friends, 
stop and think what that means. A boy, with nothing ex- 
cept the power that is within him, con<|U(^red the pirates 
on the seas and led them captive into the very harbor of 
Ivome. Caesar as a child of God would h ive been a power 
that would have shaken the world. We have some of these 
powers, if we would simply gather around this Wonder of 
wonders and live as God wants us to live, and learn as God 
wants us to learn. 

III. And tlien we ought to look as God wants us ro 
look. ^Xooking for that blessed hope, and the glorious 
appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ." 
Looking for the blessed hope. There is nothing that helps 
a man along in this world so much as a blessed hope, one 
great philosopher said: "Yesterday I did not live; To- 
morrow I cannot live; to-day I do live." My friends, we 
do not live in the tomorrow ; we do not live in the yester- 
day; we live now, and in the now we are monarchs of 
three kingdoms: We are kings of the past by memory; 
we are kings of the present by reason; we are kings of 
the future by hope. Oh, that blessed hope! Where sDall 
we get it? 

1. Look at the Wonder of all wonders. The fact that 
God made the world and gave His only Son to sleep in the 
crib of Bethlehem, is an evidence that the plan of God will 
not be perfected until tlie future, and that this Child shall 
go home and prepare a home for us. Oh, blessed hope. 
You may remember to-day when you were a poor man, with 
nothing in the world but the dear wife who had united 
witli you for the future. You may remember how, before 
that marriage day,, you looked forward and saw the little 
home that you would call your own ; you saw the vines that 
you would plant; you saw the clusters of grapes that 
would grow there; you saw the little cradle that would 
rock that cliild that should be born, flesh of your flesh, 
bone of your bone; and seeing all that in hope, you rolled 



80 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

up your sleeves and went to work. Life would have been 
a failure, had it not been for the blessed hope that led you 
onward and upward. 

2. If you want the blessed hope of eternal life, I 
say again, you must come to the crib of Bethlehem and see 
the Wonder of all wonders, and then, w^hen you look at' 
that child, look not only there for the source of all hope, 
but look there and find Him who is coming to judge the 
quick and the dead. Paul could not help but glance from 
the crib to heaven. He thought of the little Child lying 
here to-day 'a span long; and then thought of that Child 
as a grown up man, entering the ministry, djdng on Cal- 
vary, ascending to heaven where He is, on the right liand 
of God ; he thought of His coming again with all His holy 
angels, to raise up all the dead, when we shall stand before 
him on that glorious day, and he said, Now when you 
celebrate Christmas do not forget that day. 

3. "Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious 
appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.'^ 
And He is the great God. Oh, Wonder of wonders ! Lud- 
wig Harmes said : "I don't know which is the greater won- 
der, the fact that God is so great, or because He became so 
little.'' I do not know whether to feel the more surprised at 
knowing that God is greater than all the firmaments, or to 
know that He became so small that His mother held Him 
on her hand. Here lies all the grace and greatness of God, 
and tliis grace and greatness of God has done wonders. 
What did that little Child do? Heaven so far off that 
the Avorld could never have found it, those little bands 
bring heaven down to earth. What has this little Wonaer 
done? The world full of selfishness, by His own denying 
Himself, and His own immortality. He has made the world 
go out and say: What can 1 do for my Master? This 
Cliristmas spirit that you see upon the streets, the people 
thronging up and down the streets of traffic, into the stores, 
buying and selling, is all but a spark of that great gift of 
the Son of God, and the unselfishness that His Spirit is 
bound to plant into the world. He is the great God. What 
has He done? He has made the impossible possible. God 
said : The soul that sinneth, it shall die. God cannot lie. 



CHRISTMAS. 81 

Man did sin. Before the human reason of the world it is 
absolutely impossible that Adam and Eve could be saved, 
or their off-spring, born in sin, and yet this little Wonder 
of wonders, who cannot lie, can take the truth that the 
soul that sinneth, it shall die, and can make it possible 
for the world to be saved, and that is the reason, it is said 
that the grace of God hath appeared bringing something 
the world knows nothing about; but the Lord Jesus Christ 
paid the penalty for your death and mine on Calvary. He 
was worth it. And now those little hands come and say : 
Don't be afraid of Me; I am your God; I am great, but 
you never are afraid of a little child. Did you ever see 
a person afraid of a little child? Did you ever see a per- 
son afraid of a little babe? Come, ye fatliers and mothers. 
Come, ye fearful and fearless. Come all and gather around 
this crib. Do not be afraid. Here lies the grace of God,, 
a little babe. Take hold of it ; it is the Almighty God, but 
you don't need to be afraid. The Son of man is come 
to seek and to save that which was lost. Here is your 
hope, your life. Come live ; come learn ; come look ; come 
labor. 

lY. Come labor. "Who gave Himself for us, that He 
might redeem us all from iniquity, and purify unto Him- 
self a peculiar people, zealous of good works." The Lord 
Jesus Christ is not a little, lazy Lord. The fact that He 
sleeps in the little crib of Bethlehem is no sign that He 
did not come to work. He did come to labor. The apostle 
says here, "He gave Himself for us.' Oh, the labor of the 
Son of God, when He sweat, not only drops of perspira- 
tion, as you and I have, but drops of blood. You see tne 
feet of Him who toiled for our salvation, bleeding; you 
see the hands of Jesus Christ, wounded, so that you can 
look through them. That is what He did for you and for 
me. Have you seen the breast pierced with the sword for 
your salvation and mine? Have you heard His moans 
and groans on Calvary's hill, there treading the winepress 
of God's wrath all alone? Have you heard Him wooing 
you with voice of love, "Come unto Me, all ye that labor 
and are heav;\^ laden, and I will give you rest?" Have^ 

6 



82 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

you got the meaning of the words : "God so, so, so loved 
the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that who- 
soever believeth in Him should not perish, but have ever- 
lasting life?" Have you heard that cry, after that hard 
day's work for all eternity, "It is finished?'' What was 
finished? Your redemption and mine. God labored, my 
friends. The Wonder of all wonders. 

2. The Apostle Paul does not refrain from calling 
attention to himself in connection with others. Who gave 
Himself for us — for you, Titus, and for me, Paul, and for 
many other servants of God. He gave this all for us. In 
other words, they tell me, Titus, that I work too hard, says 
Paul, in this message this evening, they tell me that I 
might have escaped this prison if I had simply confessed 
that I would reject my Savior ; I might have been a lawyer 
successful financially and otherwise; I might have been 
a teacher in one of the great universities; it isn't lack 
of learning nor lack of opportunities that has made me 
this prisoner; they tell me I should not toil as I am 
toiling, but I cannot forget, Titus, that my Lord and 
Savior Jesus Christ bled and died for me, and I cannot 
help but work; I must work; I am determined to know 
nothing but Christ and Him crucified; all the powers of 
hell cannot keep me from working. They say I am 
peculiar. So are all Christians. "Who gave Himself for 
us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify 
unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." 
I hope every one in this house will grasp the voice of the 
Holy Spirit in this, that a Christian is a peculiar man, a 
peculiar woman. A Christian is a newly born creature 
in this world. A Christian recognizes that Jesus Christ 
worked, and w^orked our salvation out for us; recognizes 
that he is saved alone by grace; recognizes that in him- 
self he can do absolutely nothing to save himself, and when 
he gets himself filled with this great truth, saved by all 
the grace and greatness of the Wonder of wonders, he 
becomes enthusiastic to do something for the glory of 
God and for the welfare of man, without any worthiness 
on Ids part, and that is the peculiarity of the children of 
God. Zealous of good works. How can I leave this subject 



CHRISTMAS. SS' 

this evening without asking you the question : Are you 
really this evening a child of the Wonder of wonders, and 
if so, are you really engaged in doing something for God's 
glory? Are you one of the peculiar people of God, tnat is 
working as if his very souPs salvation depended upon his 
works, and at the same time trusting in God for salvation 
as if his works amounted to nothing? Now I could not be 
a Christian, to say nothing of being a minister, unless 1 
would do all that I possibly could for the upbuilding of 
God's kingdom. That is the message that I want to bring 
to you this evening. If you have been living a lazy, worth- 
less, good-for-nothing life; if you have been living a kind 
of a treacherous life; if you have been living on the chair 
of ease and on the pillow of sleep instead of being wide 
awake and doing Avhatever God gave you the power and 
the gifts to do for the kingdom of heaven, I still doubt 
whether you are a child of God. Do not misunderstand 
me. Your works are not going to save you, but your doing 
nothing may damn you. That is what I want to say. Your 
works will not save you, but your bad deeds may damn 
you. Kemember, my friends, that the law of God not only 
tells us what to do, but what not to do, and if you do not 
do what God says you shall do, you are just as big a 
sinner as if you do what He said you shall not do. I have 
almost more respect for an ungodly man who fights for his 
ungodliness, than I have for a goody-goody Christian who 
does nothing. The fire of the Holy Spirit and the sparks 
that came in the grace and the greatness of God at Bethle- 
hem, are enough to kindle the soul, and the brain, and 
the heart of every man on God's earth, if he simply lets 
it burn. 

And now I wish you all a Merry Christmas, and I 
wish you the Christ-child, the Wonder of wonders, as you 
live, love, learn, look and labor until your day's worK is 
done, and God sliall call you home. Amen. 

PRAYER. 

O God, our heavenly Father, we thank Thee for this beautiful even- 
ing in the temple of God, and for this opportunity which we have had 
to feast at this holy manger at Bethlehem, and for this great lesson that 



84 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

we have learned at the feet of the great Teacher of all teachers. O 
Lord, our God, we pray Thee this evening to help us to live as true 
children of God; help us to look, and to learn, and to labor, as it is 
Thy will that we should do these things. And we pray Thee, heavenly 
Father, now that we are going to our respective homes, to remember 
that we are spending the last Sunday of nineteen hundred and four, and 
help us to remember that we are now spending the last week for many 
who shall fall asleep before the bells of the new year shall ring, and 
if there are any in this house this evening who have heard their last 
message of God, Oh, do Thou help them to hold fast to this message 
with all its fullness of the grace and the greatness of God. We pray 
Thee that Thou wilt lead those who shall live in the coming year, through 
the threshold of that year as dear children of God, zealous of good 
works. Give us a strong and living faith in the merits of our Lord 
and Savior Jesus Christ, and may this Savior occupy our hearts and 
there make His throne, and rule us in all our thoughts, words and 
■deeds, and when finally our daj^'s work on earth is all done, not for 
anything that we have done, but alone for Thy mercy's sake, accept 
us in the name of the beloved Jesus Christ. Amen. 



SUNDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS. 

Looking Backward. 

Gal. 5:1-7. 

"1^X0 W I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth noth- 
I ^j ing from a servant, though he be lord of all ; but is under 
/ tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. 

Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements 
of the world ; but when the fulness of the time was come, God sent 
forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them 
that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. 
And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into 
your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a 
servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thv Word is truth. Amen. 



Dearly Beloved in Christ : — 

A Happy New Year to you all! Not often do we 
find that there is no Sunday between Christmas and New 
Year's Day. The Churcli of God has selected a text for 
rlie Sunday between Christmas and New Year. This 
time that text falls also on New Year's Day. I shall 
therefore meditate and speak today on the text for the 
Sunday after Christmas, as well as on the text for New 
Year's Day. In the first text we will learn how to look 
backward, and this evenino^, in the regular New Year's 
text, we will learn how to look forward. May the Holy 
Spirit then enlighten us this morning while we con- 
sider t]i(* theme: 

TX)OKIXG BACKWARD. 

I shall ask you a number of questions — three main 
questions and possibly eight or nine others under these 
main questions. 85 



86 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

I. Looking backward, have you served your God 
as you should the past year? "Now I say that the heir, 
as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, 
though he be lord of all; but is under tutors and govern- 
ors until the time appointed of the Father. Even so we, 
when we were children, were in bondage under the ele- 
ments of the world.'' The Apostle Paul Avants to show 
the Galatians that there was a time Avhen the Church of 
God was under the law, and was looking forward to that 
time when they should cease to be servants of the law, and 
become true children of the Gospel. Nevertheless, says 
he, we must not forget that as children we are under that 
law and should try to obey it, and therefore I put the 
question this morning, Looking backw^ard, have you tried 
to serve your God the past year as you should? 

1. Have you known the law of God? How can we 
be true servants under the law^ if we do not know what 
that law is? The Psalmist began that beautiful first 
Psalm by saying: Blessed is the man that walketh not 
in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way 
of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful, but his 
delight is in the law of the Lord. Yes, a true Christian 
delights in the law of the Lord. I grant that that word 
"law" in that Psalm does not refer simply to the moral 
law, but to the teachings of God, but we all do know that 
the moral law is very comprehensive, and consequently 
I shall ask you again. In the past year did you know the 
moral law? Is it true that there may be some sitting 
before me who cannot repeat the Ten Commandments if 
asked? It does not seem possible in this enlightened age 
that that should be true, but I find it true right along. 
While I was engaged in college work, I was frequently 
called upon to address the graduating classes in Higli 
School, and more than once I found classes with diplomas 
in their hands who did not know the Ten Commandments. 
And if the graduates of our high schools in the present 
day, can so graduate without even knowing the moral 
law, I am sure that I am safe in asking the question of 
a large congregation like this, Did you, in 1904, know this 
law under which you are to serve your God? Did you 



SUNDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS. 87 

know that the first three commandments tell you how you 
are to love your God, w^ith all your heart, with all your 
soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength? 
Did you know that the last seven commandments tell you 
that you are to love your neighbor as yourself? And did 
you know that the first table of the law told you not only 
who God was, but hoAV you should not take His name in 
vain; and on the other hand, how you should try to keep 
the Sabbath Day holy? Did you know your duty to your 
father and to your mother? Did you know your duty to 
those older than you? Did j^ou know that you were to 
love everybody and not hate any one, and if you did, that 
you were a murderer? Did you know that you should 
live a pure life, so that on the Judgment Day you need 
not stand before your own Avife and children in shame? 
Did you know that you were not to take things not your 
own? Did you know it was wrong to tell a single thing 
that is not true? Did you know that even the desire to 
have what you never should have, is all wrong in God's 
siglit? Did you know that if jou are living an ungodly 
life you are bringing a curse down upon your children 
for three or four generations to come; and on the other 
hand, if you are living a righteous life, you are bringing 
down a blessing on your children for thousands of gen- 
erations? Did you know that you yourself may have a 
curse resting upon j^ou that was brought down b}^ an 
ungodly great-great-grandf ather ; and that on the other 
hand, you may have a blessing resting upon you that 
came from your father and mother, or jour grandfather 
and grandmother, for two hundred and fifty years back, 
yea, for a thousand generations? Looking backward, 
did you know God's moral laAv? 

2. Not only do I want to know whether you knew it, 
but whether you meditated on that law. In that Psalm 
which I just quoted, it is said that the Godly man medi- 
tates upon that law day and night. How could he medi- 
tate on that law in the dark if he did not know it? Why 
did he meditate on that laAv? Because he knew it was 
just; because he knew it was right; because he knew it 
would help to make him a better man. I am afraid too 



88 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

many people do not think of the Ten Commandments 
enough. We even have trouble to get our Sunday Schools 
to say them once a week. It would seem we have forgot- 
ten that God wants that law said, not only once a week, 
but every day, on the ends of our fingers, on the door 
posts, everywhere. I am afraid we are not meditating, 
enough on God's holy law. The other day I stepped into 
our county jail and saw three boys sitting on a bench. 
I said: ''Good morning, boys, what's the matter? Been 
going to Sunday School too much?" and then they 
laughed. ''No," one said, "that is just the trouble; we 
didn't go enough." But one said, "I used to go to Brother 
Gamber's class." I said "Did Brother Gamber teacli you 
to come here and spend your time behind these bars?" 
"No sir, he taught us better." "Why didn't you stay in 
his class?" "We didn't want to." What liad they been 
doing? Robbing the Salvation i^rm^^ boxes. They did 
not meditate on God's law enough. That was the trou- 
ble. I want you to understand that if you have got the 
Ten Commandments in your homes, repeated every morn- 
ing at the table, repeated ever}'^ day by your children; if 
they will sit there at home for ten or twelve years and 
say every day that God says Thou slialt not steal, con- 
science Avill not allow the boy to go and rob the church 
boxes of the First Lutheran Church, or the Salvation 
Army boxes. The great trouble of the present day is that 
we are not paying enough attention to the Ten Com- 
mandments; we do not meditate on that holy law; we let 
the world go on and think the children are smart because 
they go to high school, and the high school has many 
corrupt boys and girls, and the world knows it. They 
are not meditating on God's holy law enough. How have 
you spent the year 1904, meditating on God^s holy law? 
3. Not only do I ask you how you meditated on it, 
but how did you keep that law? What effort did you 
make in the past year to keep the law perfectly as you 
could? When the great ruler of England was knoAvn 
as the little Prince of Wales, he was put under a govern- 
ess; at the age of six years he had a little lesson to learn 
everv dav. The governess said to him one day : "Edward. 



SUNDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS. 89 

have you got your lesson?'' "No/' He was playing. She 
said : ''You go right to work and get your lesson first, 
and then you can play.'' Little Edward said: "I don't 
want to study today/' but the governess said, ''You must 
study, Edward." "But I don't want to study." "Y^ou go 
and stand right in that corner." "I will not stand in the 
corner." She said, "Y^ou uiust stand in the corner." Lit- 
tle Edward got angry and struck through the window and 
broke the glass, and said, "1 want you to understand that 
I aui tlie Prince of AVales.'' Then the governess called 
in his fatlier; the father took the little boy and led him 
over to the table, opened the Bible and read the first two 
verses of (Jalatians 4 : "Now I say that the heir, as long 
as lie is a child, dilfereth nothing from a servant, though 
he be lord of all ; but is under tutors and governors until 
the time appointed of the father." Then the father took 
the little ruler and scutched him well, handed him over 
to the governess and said, "Y^ou give him another scutch- 
ing," then placed him in the corner and said, "I want you to 
understand there is no difference between you and a serv- 
ant, though you are the Prince of Wales ; you stand there 
and study your lesson, and when you get to be king, I want 
you to understand you are still under God's law." Y'^ou 
understand what I mean Avhen I say to you this morning. 
Have you tried to keep God's holy law throughout the 
])ast year, or have you, like the little stubborn Prince of 
Wales, thought you could do as you pleased with God's 
holy law? Exauiine yourselves this morning. 

Looking backward, has God the Father, Son and 
Holy Ghost been your only God^ or have you been wor- 
shipping Baal? Have you uttered an oath during the 
past year? If so, let us stop a moment and ask God to 
forgive you. How have you spent the fifty-two Sundays 
of 1904? WJicre have you been? Have you kept the Sab- 
bath Day holy? Have you helped to spread God's king- 
dom? YVm tell me. that you only missed now and then 
l»ecause you were tired. Tired ! Others of us are not tired, 
are we? Others of us are not doing anything, are we? 
Who in this church has labored more hours in 1904 than 
your pastor? Did you find him away from the pulpit 



90 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

because he was tired? Did you find him sleeping because 
it was Sunday morning? The President of the United 
States last Thursday evening went to prayer meeting. 
He runs the United States and has got time to go to prayer 
meeting, but you, with your little peanut stand, cannot 
find time. Shame on you. How have you spent your 
Lord's Days? How have you treated your father and 
mother? Last night I was trying to meditate more fully 
on this text, and the thought came to me. When did you 
write your step-mother last? Do you know I could not 
do another thing with my sermon until I wrote her a 
letter, and then the Lord hel^jed me again. It may be that 
you have left your old father and mother sit down and 
worry for weeks because you wouldn't even write. What 
have you done with God's law in 1904? How often have 
you had a feeling even toward those that have been pray- 
ing for you, a feeling that hasn't been right, a feeling of 
hatred, of wishing they wer^ out of the way? Oh, the 
treacherous hearts that dwell in our breasts. We are 
not to kill, and yet we think that we can have murder 
in our hearts and love that murder. How have you kept 
God's law? Has your life been pure? Have you sinned 
against your husband? Have you sinned against your 
wife? Have you sinned against your fellow men? Have 
you lived chaste and pure in word and deed? Is all that 
you possess yours by right, or did you simply take it be- 
cause the law allowed it? Have you told the truth? Ex- 
amine yourselves this morning. Have you kept God's 
holy law in 1904? 

II. This leads me to another question. Were you 
God's true children in the past y^ar? "But when the 
fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made 
of woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were 
under the law, that we might receive the adoption of 
sons." 

1. I ask you the question on the basis of these two 
verses: Were you true children of God during the past 
year? Did you know that Jesus Christ was born under 
the very law that condemns you? I know every one • of 
you feels condemned this morning. I feel condemned 



SUNDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS. 91 

inyself. This law that I have been speaking to you about 
this morning is so holy and so perfect that no man on 
earth can say I have kept it fully. There is not a just 
man on earth that doeth good and sinneth not, says the 
Hol}^ 'Word. I^^eeling that we are condemned under that 
law, did you know that Jesus Christ was born under that 
very law that condemns you? Did you know that when 
the holy angels sang over the crib of Bethlehem, Glory to 
God in the highest, on earth peace, good will toward men, 
that not only the angels were over that crib, but the law 
of God was over it, and Christ Himself was born under 
the law that He Himself gave, which demanded perfec- 
tion? 

2. Let me ask you another question : Did you know 
that Jesus Christ, born under that law, died under that 
law that you might live? It is said here ''to redeem them 
that were under the law.-' Jesus Christ was born under 
that laAv, that He might bear that law for you and for me, 
and in as much as that Holy laAv on you and on me said 
of every one of us, They are guilty, we are condemned, 
Christ with us, not because the sin was His, but because 
He put His shoulder under your sins and under mine, and 
that law which condemns you and me, drove Him to Cal- 
vary; that law put the crown of thorns upon His head; 
that law scourged His back; that law pierced His hands 
and His feet ; that law hanged Him up between heaven and 
earth ; His feet dared not touch the earth, because the 
earth did not want Him; His crown did not dare to reach 
lieaven because the curse of God was on Him ; the law over 
Him and the curse under Him and around Him, held Him 
fast on Calvary's hill. Did you know in 1904 that Jesus 
Christ, born in the crib of Bethlehem, was held fast 
by His own law, and paid the debt for your sins and for 
mine, and thus redeemed us? "To redeem them that were 
under the law.'' 

3. Let me ask you : Did you permit Jesus Christ 
in the past year to fully adopt you as His dear children? 
What kind of a life have you been living the past year? 
There is a great difference after all between a servant 
and a son. In one respect, says the Apostle Paul, there 



92 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

is no difference. A son, as long as he is a child, is like 
the servant, under tutors and governors, but the time 
comes, my friends, when there is a difference between 
Isaac and Ishmael. The time comes when Ishmael must 
be thrown out because he is not a true son of Sarah; the 
time when Isaac stays in the home because he is a true 
child; and so I come to you this morning and ask you, 
Did the Lord Jesus Christ fully adopt you as His child? 
"That we might receive the adoption of sons." AVhen you 
were baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy 
Ghost, then Jesus Christ adopted you, and from that 
moment until this you have been an adopted child. I 
do not say you have been a good child. Sometimes 
adopted children act very ugly, but they are still adopted 
children. The moment I adopt a son Iw law he is my son, 
no difference what he does, and so the moment you were 
baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, 
you were adopted by the Lord, and He thereby made a 
covenant that He will be a Father to you, and He will 
care for you and watch over you, and if you have gone 
away you must come back, and repent, and He will ac- 
cept the adopted son again. My question is. In 1904 Avere 
you adopted or were you not? Must you still say, I have 
no covenant with God at all ; I am still loose from Him ; 
I am still ungodly? Look backward this morning and ask 
yourself the question. How have I lived in the three hun- 
dred and sixty -five days of 1904? 

III. I come to you with a third question, and it is 
this: Were you, in the past year, true heirs of all of 
God's riches? "And because ye are sons, God hath sent 
forth the spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, 
Father. Wlierefore thou art no more a servant, but a 
son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.'^ 
Oh, what riches God has in store for us! If we cease to 
be servants and become sons, then we shall fall heir with 
elesus Christ to all the riches of God. I ask you therefore 
the question again : Were you heirs of all of God's riches 
<liiT'ing the past year? 

L My first question, in order to lead you to the 
right answer, will be this : Have yon been filled with the 



SUNDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS. 9'3' 

Hoh^ Spirit in 1904? It is said here that the Spirit of 
His Son shall be in our hearts. The Spirit of the Son of 
God is the Holy Spirit ; and noAV have you, during the pa si 
\'ear, made good use of the means of grace? You under- 
stand that the Holy Spirit does not come flying through 
the air; He does not come independent of His Word. I 
meet with people who seem to think that the Holy Spirit 
will make Christians, no difference if they do not hear 
the Word of God. I challenge smj Christian on earth,, 
to show me anywhere, a person in history or b}^ sight^ 
that was ever brought to God any other way than by the 
Word of God. We heard last Thursday evening that 
Jesus Christ promised that He would send a Comforter, 
who should remind the people of what He had said. That 
is the inessage of the Holy Spirit. The means of grace^ 
therefore, are the Word of God, either purely preached, 
or associated by promise with the bread and wine in the 
Lord's Supper, and with water in Holy Baptism. There 
is no other Ava^^ that the Holy Spirit will ever come to 
man. I do not care Avhere you point, in the Bible or in 
history, Avhen the Holy Spirit comes to man. He comes 
through the Word. On the day of Pentecost, when He 
came Avith mighty poAver and fire, the apostle Peter, in 
order that the people might not be misled, said : "Noav 
is fulfilled the promise made by Joel'' to show them that 
He came through the Word of God. The Word of God, 
therefore, must be heard, if you Avould haA^e the Holy 
Spirit, ^ow, in the year 1904, were you hungry for God's 
Word? When Sunday morning came did you feel, I must 
go to the church and hear that message of God? When 
Sunday evening came did you feel, I must go if I possibly 
can and hear more of God's eternal truth? And if you 
Avere not baptized yourself did you feel in your iieart, I 
must noAV make that covenant Avith my God? And when 
the Holy Supper was celebrated did you feel that you 
must be at God's altar and receive Him, His body and 
His blood shed for the remission of sins? Oh. were you 
filled with the Holy Ghost in 1904? 

2. Did you pray from the heart? I am not asking 
you noAv whether you prayed with a prayer book or Avitli- 



94 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

out. I have heard that question debated for the last 
twenty-five years, and there are some people who think 
it is wrong to pray from a prayer book, and there are 
others who think it is a good deal better. I want to say 
to you, my friends, that a man can pray, just as formally 
without a book as with one, and that man can pray just 
as spiritually with a book as without one. The question 
is not whether you have a prayer book or not; the ques- 
tion is simply this, when you pray, do you simply pray 
with your mouth, do you simply pray a form, or do you 
pray from the heart, with the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of 
Christ in you? That is the question, and consequently I 
want to know, looking backward, have your prayers for 
the past year been heart prayers? Must I hear the answer 
come from some of you, I didn't pray at all? I fear that 
is only too often true. I fear that some people walk right 
on through life, from one New Year to the other, and have 
no communion with God at all. Oh, may the Holy Spirit 
this day enter the hearts of all His children, teaching 
them at least to say Abba, Father. There are others who, 
though they do pray, pray simply as a matter of form; 
they can sit down and pray at the table and never think 
of God; they can run over their form even in a prayer 
meeting or elsewhere, and their minds are not on God, 
but simply on the form. What I want to know is not 
whether you have not prayed at all, it is not whether you 
have simply run over words, but I want to know whether 
there has been, in the year 1904, a Spirit in your heart 
that was the Spirit of Christ, that gave you an uneasiness 
that could not express itself, that made you feel that you 
must flee from the crowd, and go into the little -chamber 
and close the door, and pour out your heart to God with 
a cry, silent as it is, that must rap at the very throne of 
heaven. Is that the kind of prayers you have had in the 
past year? It is expressed in the words of our text in 
these words: "The Spirit of His Son into your hearts, 
crying." Oh, my friends, it is not so much whether you cry 
with your eyes or not, but did you ever cry with your 
hearts? Has your poor heart ever felt that if God does 
not speak, you cannot speak? Has your poor heart felt 



SUNDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS. 95 

that it must have an utterance to bring true joy to the 
soul? Prayer, just like language, as far as the Avords are 
concerned, must be learned. When you first began to 
talk, about all you could do was to say ''pa," ''ma;'' in 
time there was great love and great joy in the home be- 
cause you learned to say "papa," "mamma;" and in time 
you even went further and said, "mamma, bread," "papa, 
bread," and the whole family said, "Look at our little 
dear one, hoAV he or she is learning to talk." Now you 
can go home and can talk for hours but you learned word 
by Avord. The Holy Spirit in the heart of man does not 
make him a John Stark or a Spener in a single day. 
The Holy Spirit in the heart of man at first just makes 
him feel that he Avould like to say something and doesn't 
know what; pretty soon he AAdll say, "Ab," then "Abba," 
and pretty soon, "Abba, Father," and I AA^ant to say to you 
that that little prayer, "Abba P'ather, Amen," is worth a 
good deal more than the prayers of some people an hour in 
length AAdtli nothing in them. "Abba, Father." Oh, let 
me urge upon you all this morning, look backAvard and ask 
yourself the question, Hoav did I pray in the past year? 
3. Did you become heirs of all of God's wealth? In 
other Avords, did Jesus Christ become your full Brother 
the past year? "Wherefore thou art no more a servant, 
but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through 
Christ." Oh, the riches of the true children! Spurgeon 
said one time : "Great is the wealth of the man that can 
say, 'My God is my Father.' " I have sitting before me 
today people who are Avell-to-do, and people who are poor, 
and I would have you to understand that no difference 
how great your poverty, if you have been a true child of 
Jesus Christ this year, with the Holy Spirit in you, you 
have been an heir — an heir of all that belongs to Jesus 
Christ; and Jesus Christ being the only Son of God, is 
the only heir of heaven, and Christ is only too willing to 
say to you. Thou shalt be My brother; thou shalt be My 
sister. Oh, how rich I would be this morning if I were 
the only son of AndreAv Carnegie. It is silly to talk about 
being so poor. I am a son of Jesus Christ, a thousand 
times richer than a thousand AndrcAv Carnegies. There- 



96 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

fore, looking backward this morning, I will ask you, in 
all your sorrows did you remember the sorrows of your 
older Brother? Undoubtedly some of you have passed 
through some very sad experiences in 1904. It may be 
that afflictions came over you such as you never witnessed 
before; it may be that you felt pains in your hands and 
in your hearts that you never dreamed of before, but 
while those pains were penetrating your heart, did you 
think of the time Avhen your Brother's heart was pierced? 
Did you think of the days when His head was crowned 
with thorns? You are to become an heir of His. Did you 
rejoice that you were permitted to suffer a little with 
Him? 

But some of you have not only had sorrows during 
the past year, but you have had exceeding great joy. 
There are some in this house this morning that have ex- 
perienced a nearness to God such as they never had be- 
fore; there are some who have been lifted throneward so 
close that they could hear, as it were, the very songs of 
the angels. In all your rejoicings and all your pleasures, 
did you think of the joy of your Elder Brother sitting at 
the right-hand of God, waiting for the day when the final 
distribution shall be made, when the King of kings and 
Lord of lords shall stand before all His brothers and all 
His sisters and with outstretched arms say. The kingdom 
of heaven is Mine, and it is yours, because I adopted you? 
May this joy lift us all heaven Avard this morning. 

Looking backward, let us not forget, in conclusion, 
that, looking downward, there are still, at the end of 1904, 
some of our own who are still outside the kingdom of 
God. How sad, on New Year's Day, for one to know that 
he is not yet adopted; for one to know that he is not yet 
fully reconciled to God. Now it seems to me it would be 
a mistake for this large audience to pass out of these doors 
today without passing into the door of eternal life. I 
therefore invite you all to Jesus Christ, the Savior of the 
world, who is here in this very moment to save you, and 
with outstretched hands of love says : "As I live, saith 
the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, 
but that the wicked should turn from his evil wav and 



SUNDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS. 97 

live.'' "Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy 
laden, and I will give you rest." "Him that cometh 
unto Me I will in no wise cast out." And then, my friends, 
you will have the happiest New Year in your history. 
Amen. 



NEW YEAR. 

Looking Forward. 

Gal. 3:23-29. 

BUT before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto 
the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the 
law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we 
might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no 
longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of God by 
faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into 
Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is 
neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, for ye are all 
one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, 
and heirs according to the promise. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved in Christ: 

I wish I had the opportunity to-night, on this first 
evening of the new year, to reach every ear in the world, 
and, having reached every ear in the world with this 
message, I would further wish that every one would ac- 
cept the message and be saved. Possibly I have a right 
to thank my God that I have as many hearers tonight as 
I have, and surely all the honor belongs — not to me — 
but to my God who has brought you here, and if I shall 
simply have the knowledge in the future that this sermon 
was the means of bringing those who did hear it, into 
closer communion with their God, I shall always be thank- 
ful to Him. I wish you all a happy New Year, but re- 
member that such happiness as I wish you can never be 
obtained until you accept my Savior and your Savior, 
Jesus Christ. This morning we dwelt for some time on the 

98 



NEW YEAR. 99 

theme, Looking Backward ; this evening I ask you to look 
forward. May the Holy Spirit bless us while we are 

LOOKING FORWARD. 

There are several things I wish you to remember as 
you are looking forward tonigH: 

1. That by nature you are under the law of Qod. 
^'But before faith came, we were kept under the law.'' 
This was true of Israel of old, that before faith came they 
were under the law^, and it is true of every individual. 
In Old Testament times the law was preeminent, but let 
us not for a moment imagine that there was no Gospel in 
the Old Testament, nor that there is no law in the New. 
The Old Testament has the law and the Gospel ; the New 
Testament has the law and the Gospel, and what I would 
have you to remember as you are looking forward in 1905 
is this, that the law of God is over you. And when I speat 
of the law of God, I mean that law which God wrote into 
the heart of Adam when he was created ; I mean that law 
of old which the people nearly forgot until the Lord God 
wrote it again on stone and said, Kemember the Sabbath 
Day, to keep it holy. That was only one part of the great 
law of God that is over man. The law of God that was 
written into the heart of Adam, and was given to Moses 
aboul? thirty-five hundred years ago is the same law that 
is naturally over you and me, and it will be over us 
throughout the coming year. Throughout the coming year 
it is your duty to know that the Father, Son and Holy 
Ghost is the only true and living God. Throughout the 
coming year it is your duty to know that you have no right 
to curse, swear, conjure, lie or deceive by the name of God. 
Throughout the coming year it is your duty to know that 
you have no right to despise the preaching of the Gospel 
and the Holy Word, but that God demands of you to re- 
member the Sabbath Day and keep it holy. Throughout 
the year 1905, whenever you misspend Sunday, the Lord's 
Day, I want you to remember that God's holy law is right 
down over you, saying, Remember the Sabbath Day to keep 
it holy. I would have you to understand that every time 



100 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

YOU step outside of the path of rectitude, living an im- 
moral life, God's holy law covers you and says, Thou 
shalt not commit adultery. The same laAv says, Thou 
shalt not kill. The same law says. Thou shalt not steal. 
The same law says. Thou shalt not bear false witness 
against thy neighbor. The same law says. Thou shalt not 
covet thy neighbor's house, Thou shalt not covet thy neigh- 
bor's wife, nor his man servant, nor his maid servant, nor 
his cattle, nor anything that is thy neighbor's. That same 
law thunders in your ears every day of 1905, I the Lord 
thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the 
fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth genera- 
tions of them that hate me, and showing mercy unto thous- 
ands of them that love me and keep my commandments. 
That law will be over you. 

II. Not only will that law be over you, but I call 
your attention to the fact, while looking forward, that it 
will condemn you. I am speaking of the man that expects 
to be saved by the law. It will condemn you just as sure 
as you are an imperfect being, and this law is perfect. 
This laAv is so perfect that none but Jesus Christ has ever 
kept it perfectly. It is so perfect that if you break one 
point of it, you break it all. James said of this holy law. 
He that offendeth in one point is guilty of all. If you 
keep nine of these commandments perfectly, and simply 
break one of them, you have broken that whole laAv of -God. 
That may not be plain to some people, but it ought to be 
plain to all. I have ten fingers on these two hands, just 
as the two tables of the laAv had ten commandments. How 
many of these fingers do you have to cut off to hurt me? 
Ten of them? Nine of them? No. Cutting off one finger 
brings the blood from my heart; and the law of God all 
centers in the heart of God, in one word, and that word 
is love. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy 
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and 
with all thy strength, and thy neighbor as thyself, and 
you cannot injure your neighbor in any of the seven ways, 
nor your God in any of the three ways, without touching 
the heart of love, and consequently have offended against 
that law. And this law is a just law; it is a law that 



NEW YEAR. . 101 

never gives a single inch for anything; it demands per- 
fection, and will condemn every one of us. Listen to 
the Word of God: '^Is the law then against the promises 
of God? God forbid; for if there had been a law given 
^^'hicll could have given life, verily righteousness should 
have been by the law. But the Scripture hath concluded 
all under sin that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ 
mi gilt be given to them that believe." In other words, I 
would Lave you to understand while you are looking for- 
ward, that if you die in the year 1905 and expect to be 
saved becatise of your goodness, that you are going to be 
damned just as sure as God ever gave the law. The law 
of God never saved a man for the reason that he is im- 
perfect, and the law demands perfection. 

III. I call your attention to the fact, as you are 
looking forward, that this law not only is over you, and 
condemns you, but that it will, throughout the year, hold 
you, and keep hold of you until yoti have been brought to 
Christ and saved. ^'But before faitli came, we were kept 
under the law, shut tip unto the faith which should after- 
Avards be revealed." This law is not only over us and 
around us, but it is all around us, and closes us up, 
and holds us until we shall be led to Christ. No man on 
earth can get away from this law. A man may commit 
a crime in Mansfield and go to San Francisco, but there is 
one thing he can never do, he cannot tear the law out of 
his heart, and that is where God first put it; and if he 
should be able to tear it out of his heart, he cannot tear 
it out of the Judgment Day, nor out of the Word of God, 
nor out of the conscience of the people. That law holds 
a man Avherever he goes and shuts him up, and never will 
lot him go until he comes to Him who fulfilled that law 
for him. 

IV. I also call your attention to the fact that this 
law, as you are looking forward, will try very hard to lead 
you to Jesus Christ. "Wherefore the law was our school- 
nmster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified 
by faith." This law is the schoolmaster. Did you ever 
stop to think, my friends, that there is just as much love 
in God's law as there is in the Gospel? The sum and 



102 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

substance of the Ten Commandments is love, but the love 
in the law demands justice, while the love in the Gospel 
pays the debt of tlie justice in the law, and offers you 
salvation. In other words, the law condemns and the 
Gospel brings salvation. But, my friends, this law has 
got so much love in it that it wants to show you just 
exactly what you are and show you how to escape the sin 
that is within you. In some portions of the Scriptures 
this law is likened unto a mirror. A man may be walking 
along on the street during the day and imagine his face 
is just as clean as it was in the morning; he comes home 
in the evening, and, to his surprise, on looking into the 
mirror, he finds out that one side of his face, or possibly 
both, are black. How did he find it out? By looking into 
the mirror and seeing himself. The reason we have so 
many people who think they are so perfect, and so white 
in character, and never commit any wrong that may take 
them to destruction, is because they do not look at this 
moral law over them and around them, but simply keep 
their eyes closed and go on through life, and never test 
themselves in this great mirror God has placed around us. 
The Psalmist said, I wall meditate on Thy law day and 
night. He knew there was no time in life, day or night, in 
which a man should not be able to see himself in that law. 
I may think I am a pretty good man, preaching every 
Sunda}^, until I look at the law which saj^s, "Remember the 
Sabbath Day to keep it holy," which shows what a black 
face I have got. I may think I am a pretty good man, 
although mistreating father and mother, until I look into 
the very first commandment on the second table of the 
law, which says. Honor thy father and mother, that it may 
be well with thee and thou mayest live long on the earth ; 
therefore, if I have not treated father and mother rightly, 
my soul is black. And so I can look into every command- 
ment, and I say there is not a soul standing before me to- 
night, looking into this Divine law, that must not confess, 
I am a poor sinner. What shall I do? What shall I do? 
Then comes the law and says, I will tell you what I do? 
I will take you as the schoolmaster ; I will take you where 
yoii can get help; I want you to understand that I have 



NEW YEAR. 103 

got hold of you, and I will keep hold of you until I bring 
you to Jesus Christ; and when you are brought over to 
Jesus Christ, I am still going to keep hold of you until 
you are justified. 

V. And that brings me to another point while look- 
ing forward. '^That we might be justified by faith." We 
must be justified, no difference how much wrong we have 
done in this Avorld. I would have you to understand that 
no sin can eriter heaven. I would have you to understand 
that the smallest sin you ever committed would damn you 
forever if it Avere not forgiven. I Avould have you to 
understand that God never lies, and God says, ^'The soul 
that sinneth, it shall die," and we all did sin. Now how 
can a man, condemned by the law, having sinned, ever be 
justified? Possibly I can make that clear by an illustration. 
If I OAve |1,000 to some groceryman here in the city, and 
I have not got a dollar to my name, and possibly never 
can earn a cent, there is only one Avay that groceryman can 
justify me, and that is, if I have a friend Avho will step up 
and say, ''Here are a thousand dollars to pay Mr. Long's 
debt," wliat right has that groceryman to charge me with 
another thousand, if my friend has paid it for me? That 
is the only way any man on earth can ever be justified. 
We are all guilty before the law. The laAv is the school- 
master to bring us unto Christ. The law comes, like a 
policeman, and says, "I will never let you go until you are 
justified." 

VI. Then we come to the Lord Jesus Christ, and He 
has got a Avay to justify us. Looking forAvard in 1905, I 
Avant you to understand that the only way you can be justi- 
•fied is by faith. "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster 
to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by 
faith." In the year 1517, Avhen the great Keformation be- 
gan, nearly everybody thought then the way to be justified 
Avas by works. It Avas in those dark ages the people would 
leave their homes and Avalk down to Eome, and stand 
in the snow for weeks, to get forgiveness of sins. It was 
in those days that Dr. Luther himself thought he would 
get forgiveness of sins by climbing up the stairway of 
Pontius Pilate doAvn at Rome. It was in that way that 



104 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

we got the celebrated painting of the people that went 
down to Eome whipping themselves until the blood flowed 
from their backs. It was in that way that St. Peter's 
Church was built. It was in those days they sold indul- 
gences, the forgiveness of sins for money. It was in those 
days that people thought they could get forgiveness of 
sins by their Avorks and earnings. Dr. Luther, who found 
the Bible in the Library at Erfurt, discovered in many 
pages of this Book that a man is justified by faith, with- 
out the deeds of the law, and when climbing up that 
stairAvay at Eome, trying to get forgiveness of sins by his 
works, the truth flashed into his soul that yoti cannot get 
forgiveness by climbing on your knees; you cannot get 
forgiveness of sins by what you can do; it is on account 
of the mercy of our God. Then he took hold of 
this great truth, that Jesus Christ on Calvary has paid 
the debt, and that the way to get salvation is to hold to 
Him by faith. I have no time tonight to dwell at length 
upon this great truth, but I will say in one word, that the 
central truth of Christ's Church, and the central truth 
of all peace of soul is this, that I am saved alone by faith 
in Jesus Christ. Let me urge upon you then, throughout 
the year 1905, to give up your self-righteousness; to give 
up your life of the old Pharisee; take hold of Christ and 
Him only, and when the law, the great schoolmaster, dis- 
covers that you have taken hold of Jesus Christ, then the 
law, the schoolmaster, lets- you go, and no sooner. Mark 
what I tell you, you never can get away from the law and 
Christ at the same time. If yott are going to hold fast to 
the laAv, Christ lets you go; if you take hold of Christ, 
the law lets you go. If yoti hold to the law you will be 
condemned; if yoti hold to Christ the law has got to let 
you go, because He paid your debt. That is so plain no 
man can misunderstand. It is justification by faith, and 
that is what I want you all to have through otit the year 
1905; then you can say, as Paul said in one of the epistles 
to the Romans, "Being justified by faith, we have peace 
with Ood," and you never can have peace any other way. 
As long as you are going to depend upon your own good- 
ness eA'ery day your own goodness will condemn you and 



NEW YEAR. 105 

you have no peace, but here I am, a poor sinner, the chief 
of all sinners; I find no peace in my sins, but I find it in 
my great Savior, and so you can find peace in Jesus Christ. 
^^But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a 
schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of God by faith 
in Christ Jesus.'' Some one may say. What do you mean 
by faith? I have heard so much about faith all my life^ 
and jet I don't know what it means. Let me make plain 
what faith is. It is not only knowledge, not only assent, 
but confidence. I know of no better illustration of faith 
than the old one given by the fathers. If you were this 
morning to stand at a window in an upper story and the 
house were burning, and the only way of escape would 
be to leap out of that window — Now, to know there is 
a man standing below who says, Leap into my arms and 
I will catch you, is knoAvledge; that would not help you; 
you might stand there and burn to death, knowing that 
a man was standing below to catch you. You might also 
make up your mind that this man below is strong enough 
to catch you, but even that would not save you. What 
would save you? The only thing that would save you 
would be to leap from the window and let him catch 
you, — and that is confidence. A man may knoAv there 
is a Savior, Jesus Christ, and be damned; that is not 
faith. A man may knoAv that Jesus Christ can saAe ; that 
is not faith. The thing to do is to leap into the arms of 
Jesus, and trust Him. "In my hands no price I bring. 
Simply to Thy cross I cling." That is peace. Finding 
Jesus Christ by faith, Ave have peace with God. 

VII. When you have that kind of faith, then look 
forAvard, and I Avill call your attention to another great 
truth, and that is that faith in Jesus Christ, and Holy 
Baptism are inseparable. "For as many of you as haA^e 
been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.'' When I 
say baptism and faith in Christ are inseparable, I do not 
mean to say that no man ever yet was saved who wasn't 
baptized. We do know that in Old Testament times men 
were saved because they were circumcised instead of bap- 
tized; and Ave do knoAv that the thief on the cross was 
not baptized Avhen Christ said to him, "Today shalt thou 



106 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

be with Me in paradise.'' But I do know, on the other 
hand, that when Jesus Christ blessed little children by 
laying His hands upon them, or when He looked over to 
the man hanging on the cross and said, "Today shalt thou 
be with Me in paradise," that He gave to the children and 
to that man all that He can give you and me in holy bap- 
tism. I do know that Jesus Christ did lay down the com- 
mand to go into all the world, to make disciples of all 
nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and 
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; and he that believeth 
and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not 
shall be damned, baptized or not baptized. Once in a 
while we hear people say, Will I be lost? I believe in 
Christ but I am not baptized. Now, pray tell me, how 
can you believe in Christ and not be baptized? You say, 
the thief on the cross believed in Christ and was not bap- 
tized, but I am talking to the thief that is off of the cross, 
not to the one that was on the cross. That man on the 
cross could not get down, but you can be baptized. What 
I want to know is this, if you believe in Christ, and He 
says, "make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into 
the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost," how can 
you refuse to obey Him, and say you believe in Him? 
What I maintain is this, that faith in Jesus Christ and 
Holy Baptism are inseparable. In other words, just as 
soon as you believe in Jesus Christ, you want to be bap- 
tized, and will be baptized the first opportunity you get, 
and when you are baptized, you have put on Christ, and 
having put on Christ, in the sight of God the Father you 
are as holy, not in yourself but in Christ, as Christ Him- 
self. Understand me, I do not say that you will ever be 
as holy as Christ is, but I do say when you put on Christ, 
that in the sight of God, justified by faith, He looks upon 
you as if you were Christ Himself, and consequently you 
have peace with God, and you have salvation. 

VIII. "For as many of you as have been baptized 
into Christ have put on Christ." You Avill understand 
the next point I want to give you, looking forward in 
1905, is this, that when you have put on Christ and have 
faith in Him, that you are then just as good a Christian 



NEW YEAR. 107 

as any other Christian in the world. ^^There is neither 
Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is 
neither male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ 
Jesus.'' There is a good deal said these days about the 
church of the poor, and the church of the rich ; about the 
church of the common people and the church of the aris- 
tocrat. I want to say right here that I never saw an 
aristocratic Jesus in my life; I never saw an aristocratic 
Savior in my life. What I understand by a Christian is 
that when he is a Christian he has put on Jesus Christ, 
and wherever he goes he has Christ on him, and is just 
as much as any other man that has Jesus Christ on him. 
Whenever I see any one, a member of the Christian 
Church, too proud to mingle with the people, too proud 
to mingle with the colored people in God's Holy Church, 
I would not give very much for his Christianity, because 
it hasn't very much Christ in it. There is only one Chris- 
tian in the world, and that one Christian is neither Jew 
nor Greek; is neither rich nor poor; is neither high nor 
low; that one Christian is inside of Christ's righteous- 
ness, and His righteousness makes the poorest black man 
on earth white, as much as the richest white king on 
earth. Whenever we learn these great truths, we can 
look forward with joy and pleasure for the coming year. 
IX. The final thought I would give you, looking for- 
ward, is this, that when you have become one in Christ 
Jesus, you are one of the richest heirs of God, too rich 
ever to be able to count your riches. "And if ye be Christ's 
then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the 
promise." Abraham was not a very poor man when God 
first called him. You will remember the Bible says that 
he and Lot were rich in gold and silver and cattle, but 
it was not the gold and silver and the cattle that made 
them really rich; the great riches was this, that God 
called Abraham and told him that in his seed all the 
nations of the earth should be blessed, and any one who 
understands the Bible knows very well that that seed was 
to be none other than Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ Him- 
self being the only heir of heaven owns all things ; heaven 
and earth are His ; yea, ye are not your own, ye have been 



108 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

bought with a price. When the poorest man on earth 
lias put on Jesus Christ, then he has the wealth of the 
world. Oh, that I had the tongue to tell the world this 
great truth of the wealth that is in Jesus Christ. Any 
man tonight in Mansfield or elsewhere, who is living with- 
out Christ is poor — poor tonight, and, if he refuses to 
be saved, will be poor in the hour of death, poor on the 
Judgment Day, poor in hell. The man who accepts Jesus 
Christ, if he has no garment on his back, if he has no 
bite to eat, if he has not a foot of ground to his name, is 
unspeakably rich, so rich that if he had to die like poor 
Lazarus, to be eaten by the dogs, he would find rest in 
Abraham's bosom, an heir of Christ, the promised seed 
of Abraham. May God give to you these riches, is my 
prayer. 

In conclusion, next Sunday we shall receive into this 
Church by confirmation and letter, a small congregation 
of its own. A week from Friday evening I am again ready 
to start a new class to show them more fully the way of 
salvation. These are opportunities that you do not get 
everywhere, for some ministers of the Gospel will not 
go to the trouble to do what I would do and what some 
others would do, to make clear to you the way of sal- 
vation. If I were to charge you five dollars a night and 
promise you salvation you would come running, but when 
I offer to teach you the Avay of eternal salvation for noth- 
ing and spend my time and labor, you do not know 
whether you want it or not. I said last New Year's day, 
and I have said it ever since I have been in the ministry, 
that some who are listening to me today will never hear 
another New Year's sermon. Some of you must decide 
within the next few months whether you are going to 
accept Christ or forever reject Him. My prayer is that 
one week from Friday night, when the opportunity is 
given you, not one in this church tonight who is not 
baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, 
who has not been more fully instructed in the saving 
knowledge of God, will stay away, but come. Come, if 
you have to walk on crutches. Come if you have to climb 
^on hands and feet. But vou do not need to do that. If 



NEW YEAR. 109 

you cannot come to me, I will come to you. There Is 
no excuse. I Avant to so preach that on that last great 
day, if you are lost, you must acknowledge that you might 
have been saved, but you would not. May God, the Father 
in heaven, bless this message tonight, as we are going 
through the portals of the New Year; may He lead us 
ever}^ hour and everj^ day, and when our hour shall come 
to pass out of this world, may there be a glorious jubilee 
in heaven, going home to enjoy tJie riches of the seed of 
Abraham. Amen. 

PRAYER. 

God; our heavenly Father, we thank Thee for the message of 
the hour; we pray Thee to apply it to the hearts and souls of all here 
tonight with Thy Holy Spirit. We ask Thee that Thou wilt make Thy 
servant thankful for the many hands that are ready to lift up his arms 
in the work he has to do. O God, we thank Thee for the many prayers 
that are constantly ascending for his physical as well as his mental 
and moral strength. We pray Thee, O God, that Thou wilt bring into 
the ministry true and good friends throughout the coming year. We 
pray Thee that Thou wilt visit the homes of the poor, with all that is 
necessary for the sustenance of life. We pray Thee that Thou wilt 
help us to remember that if we will not work we shall not eat. We 
ask Thee that Thou wilt help that Thy Word may find true lodging 
in the hearts and souls of all these people assembled in this church 
tonight. Help us in the coming Sunday to be found in Thy temple. 
And may Thy Word be blessed to our souls in our own homes. May 
we feed on Thy truth and thrive on Thy knowledge and grace. We 
ask Thee now to prepare every soul for that coming celebration of Thy 
Holy Supper on the following Sunday, and if any of us shall be called 
from time into eternity before another Lord's Day shall appear, may 
we fall asleep in Jesus Christ. We pray Thee now that Thou wilt give 
us that faith which we now confess : 

1 believe in God the Father Almighty Maker of heaven and earth. 
And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by 
the Holy Ghost, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, 
was crucified, dead and buried; He descended into hell; The third day 
He arose again from the dead, He ascended into heaven and sitteth on the 
Tight hand of God the Father Almighty, from whence He shall come to 
judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost; the Holy 
Christian Church, the communion of saints ; the forgiveness of sins, the 
resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. 



SUNDAY AFTER NEW YEAR. 

The Present Judgment. 

1 Peter 4:12-19. 

BELOVED think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which 
is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto 
you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's 
sufferings; that when His glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also 
with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy 
are ye, for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their 
part He is evil spoken of, but on your part He is glorified. But let 
none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evil doer, or 
as a busybody in other men's matters. Yet if any man suffer as a 
Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this be- 
half. For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of 
God : and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey 
not the Gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where 
shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? Wherefore let them that 
suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls 
to Him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth: 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved in Christ : — 

You have left your homes this evening and come to 
the house of God. It may be that you have left a dear 
father, or a dear mother, or some dear children, or some 
dear friend in that home. What if this very moment 
there should be a thundering and a roaring, and a rolling 
back of the clouds, and the Son of God should come, with 
all His holy angels to call you to the Judgment! What 
if this very moment the dead should all arise in their 
graves, even those over whom it was said this afternoon, 
"Earth to earth; ashes to ashes; dust to dust!'' What 
if in the next moment you are commanded to stand on 

no 



SUNDAY AFTER NEW YEAR. Ill 

the one side or the other of the Lord Jesus Christ in all 
His glory! That is the judgment that is coming, but let 
us not forget that there is a judgment going on this eve- 
ning, without any imagination; let us not forget that 
there is a judgment going on every morning, and that is 
the 

PRESENT JUDGMENT. 

"For the time is come that the judgment must begin 
at the house of God ; and if it first begin at us, what shall 
the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of God? And 
if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly 
and the sinner appear?" 

In the present Judgment, what are the results? 

I. . The righteous Avill scarcely be saved. 
II. The mere professors are not saved. 
III. The ungodly have a terrible future before them. 

I. The righteous will scarcely be saved. There are 
many people who seem to think it is such an easy thing to 
be a Christian; that it is such an easy thing to become 
saved. I think it is a good deal as a certain person told 
me. He said, "I used to think it was an easy thing to be 
a Christian, but somehow I find it is a pretty hard thing 
to be a Christian." Those people who think it an easy 
thing are not Christians at all, or they wouldn't talk that 
way. * It is a hard thing to be a Christian, and the pres- 
ent judgment decides that the righteous will scarcely be 
saved. If the righteous will scarcely be saved, what is 
going to become of the ungodly? 

1. Who are the righteous? In the first place the 
righteous are those who have fully discovered that, they 
have no righteousness of their own. There is no righteous 
man on earth that is a moralist ; there is no righteous man 
on earth that thinks he is going to get to heaven because 
he is righteous; there is no righteous man on earth that 
thinks he has never sinned; there is no righteous man on 
earth that thinks he can get along without Holy Baptism ; 
there is no righteous man on earth that thinks he can get 
along without the Lord's Supper; there is no righteous 



112 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

man on earth that thinks he does not need to be a church; 
member; there is no righteous man on earth that thinks 
he is partly a good man and only needs a little help to 
be saved. The truth is that a man is born in sin, and by 
nature is a child of wrath, and there is no goodness in 
him at all by nature. "Our righteousnesses are as filthy 
rags'' says the great Lord God, who knows. "Except a 
man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." 
And unless a man has learned this great lesson that by 
nature he has absolutely no righteousness at all, he never 
can be a righteous man. Then how shall a man who 
knows himself to be so totally unrighteous, ever become 
righteous? 

A righteous man is one who accepts the perfect 
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. No one will 
question for a single moment the fact that Jesus Christ 
was perfect; even His enemies will admit He was one of 
the best men that ever lived; everywhere He is held up 
in history as the model for all humanity to follow. It is 
not hard to see that Jesus Christ was either the Son of 
God, or He was not a good man. Jesus Christ claimed 
that He was the Son of God; that He was equal with the 
Father. Either that was true or it was not. If it was not 
true, then Jesus Christ did not tell the truth and was not 
a good man. If it was true, then He was the Son of God, 
and as the Son of God He was perfect, the God-man ; and 
as God-man He perfectly kept this law, and consequently 
was perfect righteousness itself. The Lord Jesus Christ 
then having perfect righteousness in Himself, having paid 
for 3^our sins and mine on Calvary's hill, thereby wrought 
out our salvation, and by faith offers His righteousness 
to us, and faith is the hand with which we grasp His 
righteousness. Therefore, if we have discovered that we 
have no righteousness of our own, are fully persuaded 
that we are poor, lost and condemned sinners, we cry 
out, "What must I do to be saved?" And we hear the 
answer, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt 
be saved, and thy house," and we accept that promise as 
our own, then His righteousness becomes ours and we 
have an imputed righteousness, not an inborn righteous- 



SUNDAY AFTER NEW YEAR. 113 

ness, and the man that has the imputed righteousness of 
Jesus Christ is a righteous man, and the only righteous 
man on God's earth. 

2. Having learned who is a righteous man, the 
question arises. Why is it that he will scarcely be saved? 
"And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the 
ungodly and the sinner appear?'' In the first place it is 
because he fears the short fiery trials of Christians. 
"Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial 
which is to try you, as though some strange thing hap- 
pened unto you ; but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers 
of Christ's sufferings; that, when His glory shall be re- 
vealed, ye may be glad with exceeding joy. If ye be re- 
proached for the name of Christ, happy are ye, for the- 
spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you ; on their part 
He is evil spoken of, but on your part He is glorified. 
But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief,, 
or an evil-doer, or as a busybody in other men's matters. 
Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be 
ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf." Here 
we have a picture of the trials and sufferings that the 
Apostle Peter knew were coming upon the people. Ke- 
member that Peter wrote this epistle in the days of Nero, 
when that tyrant had his foot upon the neck of the peo- 
ple of Asia Minor; in the days when fires were kindled 
everywhere to burn men because they were followers of 
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, says the Apostle Peter, I 
do not want you to think it is an easy thing to be a 
Christian ; you may pass through fires of all kinds ; but I 
would have you to remember, says he, that these very fires 
that you endure are only for a short time, and then will 
come the greatest glory ; because you have suffered with 
Christ you shall also enjoy His great glory; but, says 
Peter, just because these fiery trials are before your very 
eyes, I fear some of you, though you are righteous, will 
turn back and not be faithful. Oh, that we all had the 
faith of John Huss, who, though one of the greatest teach- 
ers of the country, Avas put in exile, was led into the dun- 
geon and. kept there for years; was finally led up to the 
8 



114 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

stake where the fires were kindled, and when asked to 
renounce the Savior and his faith or burn there, he stood 
upon that pyre and sang songs of praise to his Master 
until the flames choked him, and only his lips could be 
seen moving in the bright flame, but they kept on moving 
until his soul went home to God who gave it. He passed 
through the fiery trials and enjoyed the blessing which 
God gave him. Now, says Peter, they will not all be like 
that John Huss ; they will not all be like Savanarola, who 
walked out on the streets of Florence, willing to die for 
his Savior; they will not all be like those one hundred 
and eighty millions who died in the first three centuries 
of the Christian era for the Master's sake. The righteous 
will scarcely be saved because they are not willing to 
endure the snubs that children of God sometimes receive; 
they are not willing to endure the trials that all must 
endure to walk in the footprints of the Master. If the 
world hated Jesus and nailed Him to the cross, how can 
you expect to be a true folloAver of the Lord Jesus Christ 
and have the world pat you on the back and say you are 
a good man? One great trouble with the Christian Church 
today is that it is not willing to bear the frowns of an 
ungodly world. There are some people, well meaning 
people, who do not like to have the world to say one word 
against their pastor. I hope the day will never come 
when the Avorld will like the pastor of the First Lutheran 
church. The day will never come when ungodly people 
will praise a man of God, because if they do they are not 
ungodly people any more. The Church must not be loved 
by the world, nor will the world be loved by the Church. 
There is a gulf between the world and the Church of God 
just as sure as there is a gulf between heaven and hell. 

Another reason why the righteous will scarcely be 
saved, is because they fail to see the long, fiery trials 
of the lost. The righteous can see a little fire built up 
around the stake to burn them ; they can see a little sneer- 
ing around in the neighborhood; they can hear a little 
ungodly talk about them, that they can see and that 
they can feel, but they do not look beyond the grave and 
see what is coming for the ungodly. "But let none of 



SUNDAY AFTER NEW YEAR. 115 

you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evil- 
doer, or as a busybody in other men's matters." There 
are men who would not bear one thing for Christ's sake, 
who would willingly steal, or would willingly murder. 
There are people who would not do anything to aid the 
cause of Christ, but they are perfectly willing to meddle 
in other men's business. Now, says the Apostle Peter, 
the reason that the righteous man will scarcely be saved 
is because he will not attend strictly to his own business ; 
because he will not look upon the short fiery trials of 
this world and see the awful fiery trials that are coming 
for the ungodly man, and the Christian, just because he 
looked at the present trials and did not see the trials to 
come for the ungodly, lost his faith and has plunged into 
the fire that never ceases to burn. 

The present judgment gives the Christian a severe 
test, and unless he keeps His righteousness and remains 
faithful until death, he will never receive the crown of 
eternal life. 

II. If this is true of the child of God, of the right- 
eous, how much more must the second result be true? 
The mere professors are not saved. If the righteous will 
scarcely be saved, what shall become of the mere profes- 
sors of religion, and how many there are in the world that 
merely profess to be Christians, and that is all you can 
say. Who are they? They are the preachers who preach 
simply to make a living. They are the laymen who hear 
God's Word simplj^ to make a living. I am not saying 
too much when I say that many a man would never preach 
the Gospel if he did not receive his salary. I am not say- 
ing too much when I say that the pulpit is a temptation 
to many a young man simply to go there and make 
speeches. How do I know this is true? I know many a 
minister of the Gospel the moment he loses his position 
in a church not only ceases to preach, but ceases to go to 
church. I can take you to the capital of a great state 
and lead you to one home after the other of ex-preachers 
who never see the inside of God's house. What did they 
mean when they were preaching? What did they mean 
when they stood behind the pulpit and behind the Word 



116 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

of God and proclaimed salvation to the people? They 
must have stood there because, like any other man, they 
expected to earn their bread by preaching and that was 
all there was in their call. What is that kind of a man 
but a mere professor — a man that would just as wil- 
lingly do something else if he could draw the same sal- 
ary ; a man who has not got his heart in the ministry ; a 
man who has not paid any attention to the Divine call; 
a man who is not aiming to Avin souls for heaven as much 
as he is to keep his pocketbook well filled. May God 
have mercy on the mere professor that stands in the 
pulpit and is not there wholly and solely for the purpose 
of saving souls! 

That is not only true, I say, of the minister of the 
Gospel who preaches simply to get a living, but it is just 
as true of the man that sits in the pew, and sits there 
for that purpose. Why is it, my friends, that some men 
come to church only once a month; and why is it that 
they go just to such and such a church and to no other; 
and why is it that some men do not want to bring the 
truth into the church? Ask the question, and find the 
answer. It is this, either I want to gain in my business, 
or I do not want my business hurt. There have been 
men right here in this city who found fault with some 
of my sermons, because, said they, it is going to hurt 
our business. If the truth is to hurt your business, may 
God hurt your business and hurt it quickly. Whenever 
the business will be hurt by the truth, I say let the busi- 
ness be hurt. But that is only imaginary. Not many 
years ago a certain man had a tailor shop in this city; 
a band of men came and said, "If you do not obey our 
behests we will boycott you and drive you out." That 
man said, "I stand on the side of God and I am going 
to see if you will drive me out.'^ That man is doing a 
bigger tailoring business in Mansfield today than any other 
man here. They did not drive him out. There are not enough 
people in God's world to drive any one man and God out. 
You cannot do it. The thing for us to learn is this, that 
we must not hear the Gospel simply to get a living; we 
must not preach the Gospel simply to get a living; we 



SUNDAY AFTER NEW YEAR. 117 

must not join church simply to get more business. Our 
principle should be to find out the church that preaches 
Ood's truth, then to hear that truth, and live up to it, 
business or no business. On the great Judgment Day 
God is not going to ask how much business you did ; He 
is going to ask if you were faithful; were you honest; 
how did you treat the poor; did you help the needy; did 
you lift up the fallen; did you have a love and a heart 
that was as big as the world? not, were you a narrow- 
minded man, looking out only for your own self? If the 
righteous scarcely is to be saved, what will become of the 
professed Christian who simply preaches to live, and sim- 
ply hears to make his living in this world? 

2. And why will mere professors not be saved? Be- 
cause they are not regenerated; and because they do not 
want to be converted. 

How can a man be born again, from on high, and 
not live according to the new birth? How can a man be 
born from on high and not live a spiritual life? How 
can a man be regenerated and not live in the prayers and 
songs and in all the blessings of God's house? A mere 
professor is an unregenerated man and consequently can- 
not be saved in that condition. 

Not only is it true that he is an unregenerated man, but 
it is also true that he does not want to be converted. 
Some people seem to think that conversion and regenera- 
tion are the same thing. It is not the same. Regenera- 
tion is the new life that comes from the Holy Spirit; it 
is that new life that is planted into the hearts of men, 
and can be planted into the heart of a babe a day old. 
A babe an hour old can be regenerated and it does not 
need to be converted. Regeneration is the new life that 
is planted in the old sinner, in his natural state, whether 
a day old or eighty years. When the new life in the heart 
of man begins to spring up, then comes the time when 
this man acts; if he goes wrong, he must turn back; and 
turning back to God is conversion. The man that is not 
regenerated does not care to be converted; he is perfectly 
satisfied in his natural state and goes on from day to 
day in his unconverted state, in his unregenerated state. 



118 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

and consequently cannot be saved. If the righteous 
scarcely can be saved, what shall become of the mere 
professor? 

III. In the present judgment we find, in the third 
place, that the ungodly have a terrible future before them. 
"For the time is come that judgment must begin at the 
house of God; and if it first begin at us, what shall the 
end be of them that obey not the Gospel of God?'' Oh, 
dear friends, if a righteous man can scarcely be saved, if 
a mere professor is not saved, then pray tell me what 
shall become of the ungodly man? And who are the un- 
godly? 

The ungodly are those who do not want to know 
God, and do not want to be near God. Ungodly — away 
from God, not wanting to know anything about Him 
whatever. And are there not thousands of people all 
around us that have plenty of time to go anywhere to a 
dance, plenty of time to go anywhere on an excursion, 
plenty of time to spend, even after the midnight hour, 
but if you give them the privilege to study God's word, 
to find out something about God, no time, no time. The 
ungodly man doesn't want to knoAv anything about God. 
He wants to keep just as ignorant as he possibly can con- 
cerning the true and living God. Pray tell me, how does 
this world ever get so many heathen? Is it God's fault? 
When God created Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden 
and told them who He was, — was it God's fault that they 
forgot Him? When the people went on in wickedness 
and the whole world was destroyed in the days of Noah, 
and Noah and his three sons and their wives stepped out 
of that ark and built the altar and bowed down before 
it, and offered their songs of praises to the heavenly 
Father, then the whole world knew the true and living 
God. After the flood there were no heathen down in the 
heathen lands; there were no heathen then in Africa; 
there were no living heathen in the world. Why did they 
walk away from that altar and forget the true and living 
God? Why in our own times do we find that a Godly 
grandfather and grandmother have ungodly sons and 
daughters, and more ungodly grandchildren? Why are 



SUNDAY AFTER NEW YEAR. 119 

these tilings? The answer is plain. People do not want 
to do right, and consequently they want to get away from 
God, who hath ears to hear and eyes to see, and are per- 
fectly satisfied to make a god of stone that cannot hear 
and cannot speak, and has no heart, and has no con- 
science and no judgment, but the God that made the 
stone will bring about a judgment, my ungodly hearer. 

Who are the ungodly? Not only do they want to 
know nothing about God, but they want to get away 
from Him just as far as they possibly can. Ungodly is 
not as strong a Avord as the Germans have; they say a 
man that is ungodly is "Gott-los" — loose from God ; he 
is a man that wants to get away from God. A good 
child is perfectly willing to go down street with father 
and mother, but the ungodly boy would love to say. 
Father, let me tear loose ; mother, let me go ; I don't want 
to go where father goes ; I don't want to go where mother 
goes; I want you to let me loose, mother. And down the 
street he runs. And just so there are ungodly people in 
the world. God has borne them on His shoulders; God 
has carried them on the palm of His hand; God has 
pressed them to His dear loving heart, but their cry is, 
O God, let me get loose; let me get away; I want to be 
ungodly. God says, I am the Lord Thy God; thou shalt 
have no other gods before Me; but the ungodly man does 
not care whether he professes Christ or not; he is willing 
to worship with ungodly skeptics, just so as to get away. 
God says, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy 
God in vain ; but the ungodly man curses and swears and 
tries to get away. God says. Remember the Sabbath Day 
to keep it holy; but the ungodly man on Sunday morn- 
ing does not care whether he keeps it holy or not, he 
wants to get loose from God. God says. Honor thy father 
and thy mother that it may be well with thee, and thou 
mayest live long on the earth; but the ungodly girl does 
not care how she treats her mother; the ungodly boy 
does not care how he treats his father ; they want to get 
loose from God. God says. Thou shalt not kill, and Thou 
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, but the ungodly man 
says, I will not rear a big family, if I have got to mur- 



120 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

der; the ungodly mother says, I will not rear a big fam- 
ily, if I have got to kill. The ungodly persons say, I will 
say all manner of bad things about this one and that 
one ; I hate them ; I cannot bear them — they want to 
get away. God says. Thou shalt not steal; but the un- 
godly man says, I can make a thousand dollars by telling 
a lie, and I will tell it, and get away from God. God 
tells us we shall not lie nor deceive our neighbor, but the 
ungody man says, I will do it. God says, Thou shalt not 
covet, but this man says, I will covet, I want to get loose 
from God. Oh, mj friends, the great trouble with all of 
us is we are trying to get away from God, trying to get 
loose from God, and just as far as we get away from God, 
in so far we are ungodly. 

I said a moment ago the present judgment will decide 
that the ungodly have a terrible future before them. Why 
will they have such a terrible future? Because God can- 
not always keep them; secondly, because there will be no 
place but hell left for them. "Where shall the ungodly 
and the sinner appear?'' 

I bring that question to every ungodly person in 
this house tonight, where are you going to appear? God 
cannot always keep you. This is God's earth, but you 
cannot always stay here. I hear one of you saying, I am 
going to stay at my home after this; I will never come 
back to this church again. Well, suppose you try that; 
suppose you stay at home, and some of these days a 
fever will take you in that home and keep you down on 
your bed ; you call a physician ; your temperature is up to 
104; it rises to 105, and soon it is announced that your 
heart is just about to stop beating, and it will stop beat- 
ing. Are you going to stay in that home then? Where 
are you going to appear? Well, you say, I suppose I will 
stay there even though I am dead. Yes, you will stay 
there a little while longer ; your neighbors will bring you 
a few flowers — they never brought you any while you 
lived, but they will bring you a few when dead, and lay 
them on your coffin ; word will be sent to the preacher — 
if he had come while you were living you would have 
ordered him out of the house — but vou will have to have 



SUNDAY AFTER NEW YEAR. 121 

liim when you are dead ; it wouldn't do not to have the 
preacher; and then you will be carried out; six men will 
take you out of the door, you cannot stay; you are dead. 
Then where will you appear? Well, I suppose then I 
will be riding in the hearse for the first time. Yes, and 
it will not take you very long to finish that ride. Then 
where will you appear? Then we will set you down be- 
side that cold grave, and arrange the straps and let you 
down slowly into that cold ground. And then where 
Avill you appear? In the grave? Well, if you could stay 
there forever I would never preach another sermon. But 
I am informed by Him who made the heavens and the 
earth that He is not going to let you stay there; I am 
informed by Him who takes a grain of wheat, and makes 
you a loaf of bread from it; I am informed by Him who 
took Elijah up to heaven in a chariot of fire, that He is 
coming to raise the quick and the dead, and to judge 
them ; and where are you going to appear when God runs 
His fingers under that grave, and lifts up, and 
brings you out before the judgment? I supose then you 
will say, I will appear before my God, I suppose, I can- 
not help it. No, you cannot help it; nor can those help 
it who are in the sea, for tlie sea shall give up its dead. 
Then where will you appear? I suppose I shall stand 
before my God on the Judgment Day. But every day, 
my friend, has got a sunset; every day has got an end; 
the Judgment Day will also have an end; then where 
shall you appear? Where? In heaven? You cannot 
stand it even in church while on earth, how will you 
stand it in heaven? It Avould be a regular hell for you; 
but you will never be there; 3^our own father, if he were 
there, would not want you there; he would not want to 
make- hell out of heaven; the angels wouldn't allow you 
there; God himself would not allow you there. Except 
a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God, 
nor enter the kingdom of heaven. Then where will you 
appear. Oh, ungodly man? You have a terrible future 
before you. Stay here on earth? The earth itself shall 
be burned up. Where will you appear? At the Judg- 
ment? The judgment shall end. Where will you ap- 



122 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

pear? In heaven? Only the righteous shall dwell there. 
Where shall you appear; oh, where shall you appear? 

There will be no place left but hell for those that are 
ungodly and will not repent. When God puts the ques- 
tion, Where shall they appear? it means something. Next 
Friday evening it is my purpose to sjtart a new class to 
show people the way to heaven. Oh, ungodly man, if you 
are sitting before me tonight, how can you allow your- 
self not to take advice when you can get it? How can 
you allow yourself to go to destruction, when there are 
thousands of prayers ascending to heaven on your be- 
half? How can you refuse to take the warning that 
comes from one who stands before you as a dying man 
speaking to dying men? How^ can you live on another 
year and not be sure that you are saved. If the righteous 
will scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the 
sinner appear? Oh, may the Holy Spirit help every one 
in this house tonight to take the advice of Himself given 
in the last verse of my text : "Wherefore let them that 
suffer according to the will of God gommit the keeping 
of their souls to Him in well doing, as unto a faithful 
Creator." God gave you to the world. God is almighty 
and His heart is love itself and His life is light; His 
home is heaven and His glory is great, and all things are 
promised to you. How, can you escape if you neglect so 
great a salvation offered to you in Jesus Christ? May 
these words tonight move all of you to repent of 
your sins, to believe on Christ, to accept Him and to be 
faithful until death that you may receive the crown of 
eternal life. Amen. 

PRAYER. 

O God, our heavenly Father, we thank Thee that Thou hast per- 
mitted us to spend this whole day in communion with Thee, and in pro- 
claiming Thy most holy truth, and as we are now about to continue the 
communion which we have had before this altar this morning, we 
ask Thee to prepare us especially for the worthy celebration of Thy 
Holy Supper. We pray Thee, O God, that Thou wilt bless the message 
of the evening. Help that it may be such a message that everyone hear- 
ing it will accept Thee and walk in Thy ways. We pray Thee, heavenly 
Father, that Thou wilt move us all to pray to Thee more earnestly in 
the future than we have in the past. Help us to live lives that are 



SUNDAY AFTER NEW YEAR. 123 

consistent with our profession. Help us not to be hypocritical in any- 
thing we say or do. We ask Thee for Thy Spirit from on high to 
enlighten us, so that we may always walk in the footprints of Jesus 
Christ, who taught us to pray : 

Our Father who art in heaven ; Hallowed be Thy name ; Thy 
kingdom come ; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven ; Give 
us this day our daily bread ; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us ; And lead us not into temptation ; 
But deliver us from evil; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



EPIPHANY. 
Three Hearts. 
Isaiah 60:1-6. 

HRISE, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is 
risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, 
and gross darkness the people : but the Lord shall arise upon 
thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall 
come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. Lift up 
thine eyes round about, and see : all they that gather themselves together, 
they come to thee: thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters 
shall be nursed at thy side. Then thou shalt see, and flow together, 
and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged ; because the abundance of 
the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall 
come unto thee. The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the drome- 
daries of Midian and Ephah ; all they from Sheba shall come ; they shall 
bring gold and incense; and they shall show forth the praises of the 
Lord. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Dearly Beloved in Christ: 

About one year ago tonight a well informed Chris- 
tian on many topics came to me and said, What does 
Epiphany mean, any way? It is not a new word, dear 
friends; it is a word that has been used in the Christian 
Church from the days of Christ until now. Not very long 
after the day of Pentecost the Church of God felt a great 
interest in keeping those great days in God's history. It 
has generally been acknowledged by the fathers that 
Jesus Christ was baptized on the 6th day of January, and 
when the Holy Spirit sat upon the Savior on that day, 
and He began to appear publicly from that day on, 
Epiphany was a popular word in the Christian Church, 
and from that day to this it represents, in some localities, 

124 



EPIPHANY. 125 

the day of the baptism of Jesus Christ. The western 
churches celebrated the 25th day of December as Christ- 
mas long before the eastern churches did. Shortly after 
the fourth century the eastern churches adopted the same 
Christmas day, and from that time on Epiphany had a 
three-fold meaning; In the first place they retained the 
old meaning, the festival of the baptism of Jesus Christ; 
in tlie second place they added to it the appearing of 
the Lord Jesus Christ at Cana of Galilee, performing 
His miracles; in other words, the appearing of the great 
wonders of Christ; then, furthermore, they added to that 
the coming of the wise men from the east, those three 
kings, as a call of the great truth of Christ to a dying, 
perishing world. These three ideas prevailed in the Chris- 
tion Church until the days of the Keformation. In the 
sixteenth century then the great Church of God began to 
see all these three ideas in one; All the world for Christ; 
World wide missions! The heart of God reaching out to 
save every immortal soul. Epiphany, then, means heart 
— heart of God ; heart of the world, and heart of Chris- 
tians. I call your attention this morning then to the 
theme 

THREE HEARTS. 

May the Holy Spirit help us this morning to have 
in our hearts that love to work out, as far as man's work 
is concerned, the great work that God has given us to do. 
I call attention, 

I. To the heart of the world. "For behold the dark- 
ness shall cover the earth and gross darkness the people.'' 
The first thing that God said when He created the world 
Avas, Let there be light, and there was light. On the last 
day of creation He also gave a light, which is burning 
and flickering today yet down deep in the hearts of even 
heathen, and that is the image of God in man, the con- 
sciousness that there is a law that says what is right and 
wiiat is wrong. My Christian friends, when sin came into 
the Avorld, the light of the image of God was put out; only 
liere and there can you find a little flicker of the flame 
down deep in the hearts of heathen nations. You will 



126 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

find that by the side of every man of God in history 
there is a heathen drawn toward God. By the side of 
Abraham of old, who preserved the truth, we find a Melohi- 
zedek ; by the side of Elisha, a Naaman coming over from 
Egypt; by the side of Solomon we find a Queen of Sheba; 
and in the days of the apostles we find Cornelius looking 
for the great truth; we find in the days of Jesus Christ a 
Syrophenician woman coming with faith and prayer such 
as was never beheld on earth before; and so I say there 
is a natural drawing all through history of a world that 
is cast into darkness, and in this darkness we find the 
heart of the world. 

You will find the heart dark with original sin. When 
Adam and Eve sinned it was said of Seth, born to 
them, that he was born in the likeness of his father. 
HoAv can a man that is a sinner have a child born in his 
likeness and not be a sinful child? Therefore, from the 
first pages of the Word of God until the last you will 
find this great truth passing over every page, that man 
is by nature a child of wrath; that we are by nature in 
the dark ; that our righteousnesses are as filthy rags ; that 
we cannot see spiritually, we are blind; we are deaf; we 
are dumb ; we are in the dark. The poor little child there- 
fore, born into a sinful world cannot help having a dark- 
ened heart. 

And this heart, born in the darkness of sin, instead 
of growing lighter by itself, grows darker and darker by 
actual sin. Look around the world today and see how 
dark it is; see how many people there are that do not 
know at all who God is; see how many people there are 
that when they know, or do not know, take the most holy 
name of God in vain; see how many people there are 
that know nothing at all about the Lord's Day; they live 
as if there never had been a God in heaven; they live sts 
if there had never been a law. Remember the Sabbath 
Day to keep it holy. See how many people there are 
that have no love whatever for their aged fathers and 
mothers and can hardly wait until the day they are laid 
down to rest in the earth with the words : "Ashes to 
ashes and dust to dust." It is only too sad that these 



EPIPHANY. 127 

things are true. Oli, the darkness of the heart of the 
world. Then, furthermore, look at the murdering that 
is going on; think of the 80,000 to 100,000 men slaught- 
ered recently at Port Arthur. There you not only find 
the stream of blood flowing, but you find it in Armenia; 
you find it in Africa; you find it not only in the nations 
where war is carried on by nations, but you find the blood 
is flowing in every city and every state; all over the 
v/orld the sword is drawn. And there are not nearly so 
many actual murderers as there are murderers in God's 
sight. Many a man has failed to drive the dagger im;o 
the heart of his enemies; they are not living because they 
were not hated, or because they are not spiritually mur- 
dered, but simply the Providence of God has held some 
hand back, not permitting it to accomplish what it wanted 
to do. When Ave stop to think how our daily papers are 
filled with murders, it makes one think it is about time 
that the printing presses print every message with blood. 
Wherever AAe look the world is dark, sinning against God, 
and sinning against our fellow men. 

This darkened heart of the world becomes darker yet 
when Ave stop to realize the lost souls that are in this 
Avorld. Oh, hoAV many there are that are still outside of 
the kingdom of God. There 'are in the Avorld at the 
present time at least scA'en millions of Jews — seven mil- 
lions of people Avho had the j)romise of a Savior — seven 
millions of people Avhose fathers looked forAvard to the 
day when this Light announced in our text should come, 
and the glory of the Lord should shine upon them — seven 
millions of people who rejected the Savior when He did 
come, and cried out before His cross. Let His blood be 
upon us and upon our children! And the blood of that 
Christ is upon their children. Seven millions of them 
today all OA^er this Avorld, looking for a SaAior and find- 
ing none, too proud to acknoAvledge their mistake. And 
Avhere are they? Going doAvn to death at the rate of a 
man every moment. Oh, the darkened heart of this world ! 

Then there are in this Avorld at least one hundred and 
eighty-five million Mohammedans — 185,000,000 of peo- 
ple Avho have a mixture of the religion of Abraham, and 



128 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

false religions. There are some things among the 
Mohammedans that have been brought out of the 
Bible; there are many things among the Moham- 
medans that have been brought from heathen nations; 
but one thing we must not forget about all Mohammedans, 
and that is that they teach vengeance, and envy, and mur- 
der; their whole aim is to drive people at the edge of 
the sword to accomplish whatever is their will; that a 
man born in 611 has brought a curse upon the world that 
cannot be erased as long as the sun shines; 185,000,000 
people today worshiping a false God, worshiping in false 
religion, carrying murder in their hearts, teaching sinful 
lust to be even found in heaven. Oh, the poor dark heart 
of the vrorld! 

And then think of those that have never yet heard 
of Christ. I hear people saying every day, I am opposed 
to foreign missions; we have enough to do here at home. 
Oh, what a narrow, narrow saying that is, and what a 
lack of love, and what darkness in the hearts of pro- 
fessed Christians, that talk that way. I know, as I shall 
show you hereafter, that we have heathen enough all 
around us, but, dear friends, it is a different thing to have 
heathen in Mansfield, and to have heathen out in some 
lonely island where there never was seen a Bible, where 
there never was heard a sermon, where there never has 
been a soul baptized, where the true and living God is 
entirely unknown; where the people could not find the 
truth if they wanted it. Brethren, there are eight hun- 
dred and thirty millions of people on God's earth today yet 
that are living in this total darkness, that if they were 
to die tonight they have no one to look to, to be saved. 
Oh, the dark heart of the world ! 

And not only is this true of heathen, it is just as 
true of professed Christians. We say there are four hun- 
dred and fifty millions of Christians in the world, and 
when you go to the encyclopedia to find out where they are 
found, every man in the United States is called a Chris- 
tian. You know and I know that there are at least one- 
half of the people in Mansfield that do not go to the house 
of God. You know and I know that there are about half 



EPIPHANY. 129 

of our people that make no profession of Christianity; 
and you knoAV, and I know, that there are more people in 
Mansfield going to church, according to the population 
than in most cities. The truth of it is that among these 
450,000,000 there are to say the least 225,000,000 who are 
not Christians at all. Now add these 225,000,000 so-called 
Christians to the 830,000,000 of outright heathen, the 
185,000,000 of Mohammedans and the 7,000,000 Jews, who 
openly reject Christ, and compare, if you please, for a 
moment, the true Christians with the millions and mil- 
lions who are living in total darkness — is it any wonder 
that we find that the heart of the world is dark? "For 
behold the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross dark- 
ness the people.-' 

II. Epiphany shows us not only the heart of the 
darkened world, but also the great heart of God. "Arise, 
shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord 
is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover 
the earth and gross darkness the people; but the Lord 
shall rise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon 
thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings 
to the brightness of thy rising. Lift up thine eyes round 
about, and see; all they that gather themselves together, 
they come to thee; thy sons shall come from far, and thy 
daughters shall be nursed at thy side. Then thou shalt 
see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be 
enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be con- 
verted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto 
thee.'' Here, my friends, in these words we find the great 
heart of God; we find a light in God's heart in His pro- 
phesies, and in the New Testament times, but the great- 
ness of this light shall be seen in the hereafter — in 
eternity. 

Yes, God's heart is full of light. The first thing He 
said on the morning of creation was, Let there be light; 
and when the sun went down, when the first sin was 
committed the first promise was that the seed of the 
woman should crush the serpent's head; and that first 
promise of the Savior w^as again a light in a darkened 





130 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

world. As time passed on, the people were taught clearer 
and clearer of the coming of a Savior. It was not long 
until this same prophet sang to the world, Behold, a 
virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His 
name Emmanuel. This same prophet brought out a great 
truth when he said of this little child that He should be 
born of the virgin, that His name shall be called Wonder- 
ful Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the 
Prince of Peace. Daylight was to come when Christ was 
born, but remember, Isaiah lived just about seven hun- 
dred years before Christ was born. Now, if he could 
stand up and cry out seven hundred years before day- 
light, "Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory 
of the Lord is risen upon thee," Oh, w^hat a heart there 
must be in God, filled with that light that could be seen 
seven hundred years before the morning! True there was 
no real. morning in history until the wise men came from 
the east and saw the Christ at Bethlehem; nevertheless, 
the heart of God was so full of light, that four thou- 
sand years before that time it was already shining, and 
seven hundred years before that time the prophet Isaiah 
could not help but say. Daylight is coming I Arise, shine, 
for thy light is come! 

All through the prophesies of the Old Testament you 
will find the burning light of God's promises; the burn- 
ing light of God's heart; that there is a light that is 
just burning itself out in the darkness and telling the 
world to wait patiently, that the light of God is coming. 

It is not very far from this time until we find that 
he shall ride into Jerusalem as a great king, welcomed 
by Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He that 
cometh in the name of the Lord! Daniel saw this child 
and said He shall be born in so many weeks of prophesy. 
We are told by others that He should be born in Beth- 
lehem. And so Ave find one light after the other, even 
shining down into the grave, and telling us that God 
Avill not suffer His Holy One to see corruption; that He 
shall rise before that body can decay. 

2. And so the heart of God shines on until we come 
to the New Testament times, and then it shines brighter 



EPIPHANY. 131 

than ever. The very stars of heaven had to tell us that 
the Christ is born. The very angels of God had to come 
with their brightened wings, flying over the plains of 
the shepherds singing, "Glory to God in the highest, and 
on earth- peace, good will toward men.'' The Savior is 
coming! The messenger from heaven brought the news: 
"Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great 
joy; for this day is born to you in the city of David a 
Savior, which is Christ the Lord." The heart of God is 
shining forth in history! 

Time passes on and this little child becomes a man; 
and this man steps down to the river Jordan and is 
baptized; as He kneels down after the baptism there 
comes a light from heaven, the Holy spirit — the same 
Holy Spirit that dwelt upon the face of the waters on 
the morning of creation — and rested upon Him, to tell 
John the Baptist, and through him, the world, that this 
is the heart of God! This is the Light of the World! 
And no wonder John speaks of that Light, and of that 
life, and of that love, of the great Savior. 

This light in the heart of God becomes clearer and 
clearer. The Lord Jesus Christ, it is true, when He is 
dying on Calvary, makes the sun go down at noon, but 
the very fact that the sun must refuse to shine when 
Jesus Christ was dying, is an evidence of the fact that 
the heart of God is after all a great light. How could the 
sun shine in the heavens when the heart was dying? How 
could the sun shine in the heavens when the light in the 
breast of God was going out? How could it be other- 
wise, but that the sun in heaven would have to be dark 
when the Light of the world goes down and out on Cal- 
vary's hill? But, my friends, while the light went out, 
the heart was still there, and on the third morning, when 
that angel came and rolled the rock away, that light 
burned anew. 

And when on that day He walked out to Emmaus, 
there was a light that burned so much that the two men 
that were walking with Him said afterwards: Did not 
our hearts burn within us when He was explaining the 
Scriptures along the way? How could it be otherwise? 



132 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

A man could not get his breast close to the breast of God 
without feeling the light of the heart of God; and that is 
why John, who laid his head upon the breast of the Sa- 
vior so much, was filled with such a message of love, with 
such a message of life, with such a message of light. He 
got his life, his light and his love from the heart of 
Jesus Christ. 

On the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came and 
settled down upon the people like fiery tongues. These 
were only sparks out of the heart of Jesus Christ who 
had ascended on high, for the Holy Spirit proceeded from 
the Father and from the Son. 

Time passes on; the Savior has ascended on high; 
the promise is given, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto 
the end of the world." The middle ages come, the middle 
ages, including the dark ages; it almost seemed at times 
that the light of God which had grown dimmer and dim- 
mer, never would be seen. Sometimes you find the hottest 
fires unseen. When Mount Vesuvius destroyed the city of 
Pompeii, it was not a new fire ; it was an old fire that burst 
forth. When, in the days of the Keformation, Dr. Luther 
took his ninety-five theses and nailed them to the door 
of Wittenberg castle, it was not a new fire that broke 
forth in Europe; it was the same old fire that was burn- 
ing down in Florence in the days of Savanarola; it was 
the same old fire that was burning in the days of that 
grand old martyr, John Huss; it was the same old fire 
that burned those one hundred eighty-five million of peo- 
ple in the first three centuries of the Christian era. Even 
the persecutions of Christians are only sparks of what 
children of God will endure for the fire that is burning 
in the heart of God. 

Time passes on, and in this century, more than in 
any century since the days of Christ, we are living in the 
missionary period. We are living in the time when is 
being fulfilled what the prophet Isaiah said long, long 
ago : "Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory 
of the Lord is risen upon thee." Now we are living in 
the time when is being fulfilled what he said: "Then 
thou shalt see and flow together, and thine heart shall 



EPIPHANY. 133 

fear^ and be enlarged, because the abundance of the sea 
shall be converted unto thee; the forces of the Gentiles 
shall come unto thee." The time has come in the Chris- 
tian Church when we must reach out further and further, 
carrying out the light of the Gospel until the ends of 
the earth shall hear that Jesus is the only Savior. 

And this light is going on to the Judgment Day, and 
on that last great day, when the dead shall come forth 
from the sea and from the earth, when the quick and the 
dead shall all stand before God, then they shall see this 
light as it never has been seen before; then they shall 
know what it means when John said, "He is the Light 
that lighteth every man that cometh into the world." 
But I apprehend, my dear friends, that even the Judg- 
ment Day will not show us Christ in all His greatest 
greatness yet. I believe when those who have died in 
Christ and have risen in His name, and are pronounced 
blessed, shall enter into the kingdom of the Father ; when 
those have entered the gate of heaven and have gone on 
with Him from place to place throughout the corridors 
of that great throne of His, they shall find out glory such 
as they never saw even on the Judgment Day; that the 
glory of the eternal God cannot be seen in one day, even 
though it is the Judgment Day. Oh, great heart of God, 
how full of light! 

III. And that great heart of God shining in this 
world, where the heart is so dark, also produces the heart 
of the Christian. Let us notice the heart of the Christian, 
that it not only is filled with God's light, and enlarged 
thereby, but it also shines with God's light. "Arise, shine ; 
for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen 
upon thee. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, 
and gross darkness the people; but the Lord shall arise 
upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee. And 
the Gentiles shall come to thy light." 

We find then that in this text the Christian, or the 
Christian people, are supposed to possess the light of 
God. Jesus Christ not only said, "I am the Light of the 
world," but He said to His disciples, "Ye are the light of 
the world." It is impossible for a man to be in this 



134 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

world, with the Gospel all around him, without receiving 
some light from the great heart of God, and this great 
light of God, when it does come to our hearts, does not 
simply throw light into one side or the other, but fills 
that heart. The Christian, therefore, should be filled with 
the light of God, and when He is filled with the light of 
God, then that light is his; he can call it his own, and 
when he can call the light his own, he can call God his 
own; then he can look up and say, ^^Our Father, who art 
in heaven." Let us not be satisfied with simply a little 
light ; let us have our souls filled with the message of God. 
This Word should be a lamp unto our feet and a light 
unto our path. If the Word of God is the lamp that shines 
forth from the very heart of God, let us take that lamp 
and put it in our hearts and fill our hearts with light. 
Did you ever stop to think that you cannot fill a room only 
half way with light? Though I only strike a match in 
this dark church at twelve o'clock at night, that little 
spark fills the church with light ; and if the light of God's 
eternal Gospel shines into our souls, the heart of God 
makes our hearts filled with the light. 

2. And when our hearts are filled with light they 
must begin to exj)and, and grow larger and larger. "Then 
thou Shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall 
fear, and be enlarged." There is nothing more harmful 
than a physically enlarged heart, and there is nothing 
more harmful to the Christian than a spiritually small 
heart, and it seems to me that so many of us are troublea 
with the small heart in Christianity. We cannot see a 
mile aAvay from our own church door; we cannot see at 
all what is needed beyond the waters. Last year in our 
own church when we came to raise money in the Sunday 
school for foreign missions, we lacked a little of 
nine thousand dollars; when we came to raise money 
for home missions and church extension, eighteen thou- 
sand dollars ; in other words, we had the little heart. We 
had the little heart to give eighteen thousand dollars for 
taking care of Christians around home that could go to 
the churches that are established, but we had only nine 
thousand dollars for the many, many millions of people 



EPIPHANY. 135 

that never heard of Jesus Christ. I maintain that when 
Christians have their hearts filled with God's light, and 
enlarged with God's light, they should be just as much 
interested in the poor Japanese beyond the sea, the pooj- 
heathen down in Africa as in those heathen right around 
their own doors. Does the sun that shines in heaven 
throw its light only on one spot on the earth? Does it 
try to throv\^ its light only on one globe? No. The sun, 
just because it is a light, throws its light on the moon, 
and on the earth, and every part of it that is turned to- 
ward it. A cloud cannot get between us and the sun with- 
out being made brilliant on the other side wath the same 
sun that gives light to us. Let us pray for enlarged 
hearts; let us pray for the missionary spirit that shall 
make us reach out in every w^ay, and enlarge wdth our 
gifts, enlarge w itli our prayers and wdth our praises for 
the salvation of the w^orld. It does not seem to me that 
Ave have grasped the true spirit of missions in this tw-en- 
tieth century. God said, ''Go ye into all the w^orld, and 
preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth 
and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not 
shall be damned." Sometimes I feel that I ought to take 
that one text and preach on it fifty-two times in one year, 
until we understand that w^hen God says. Go, He means 
go; w^hen He says preach. He means preach; when He 
^ays Gospel, He means Gospel; when He says world. He 
means world ; w hen He says all nations, . He means all 
nations; when He says, he that believeth and is baptized 
shall be saved. He means they shall be saved; and w^hen 
He says he that believeth not shall be damned. He means 
they shall be damned. That is w^hat God means, but it 
does seem to me, dear friends, that w^e think that God 
is fooling when He says these Avords; it does look as if 
we thought our tobacco w^as w^orth more than the salva- 
tion of the world. Many a man is walling to spend $20 a 
year for the filth that goes into his mouth, but is not 
willing to spend tw^enty cents for home missions, unless 
he can get a half a dollar supper. Oh, shame for Chris- 
tianity in the present day. What am I doing? What 
are you doing? I am spending more for my girls' hats 



136 THE ETJ]RNAL EPISTLE. 

than I am for the salyation of souls. We ought to get 
down on our knees for shame for the way we are having 
our hearts narrowed down, so narrow, so narrow, that 
providing we can get a ten-cent supper, we will give ten 
cents for missions. It is a wonder that God is saving 
the world as long as He is. It is a wonder that we Chris- 
tians are not robbed of our churches and of the presence 
of God; that we do not go back to heathendom as Africa 
did. I do not believe, not excluding myself at all, there 
is one preacher in America today that is a true mis- 
sionary. I do not believe there is one professed Christian 
in ten thousand that is trying to carry out exactly what 
God means. Let us not sit around this morning and point 
to our neighbor and say, he doesn't do anything. JNone 
of us are doing anything. When our year book comes out 
again it will be a disgrace before God and heaven, what 
we are doing for foreign missions. And what I say of 
this church I am saying of every church on God's earth. 
We are willing to spend dollars for excursions, hundreds 
of dollars for pride, and to hold on to the filthy dirt we 
have got, and hold on until we die, then it is all gone and 
our children fight over it, but nothing for missions. I 
believe if I could get the right kind of missionary spirit 
myself that you would soon have it. I believe the trouble 
is with us preachers. I believe we are in the ministry 
just like a great many people are in business, to make a 
little money, to get along, just keep on until we die. Oh, 
for a spirit of John the Baptist ! Oh, for the spirit of an 
Elijah! My God, give me the missionary spirit, and by 
Thy help I will give it to Thy people. "Then thou shalt 
see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be 
enlarged." Oh God, enlarge Thy servant's heart; enlarge 
Thy servants' hearts, and may Thy servants' hearts en- 
larged be the means of enlarging the heart of Thy Church. 
Amen. 

3. We not only find, dear friends, that this heart 
of the Christian should be enlarged, but we find further- 
more that this same heart should shine. "Arise, shine; 
for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen 



EPIPHANY. 187 

upon thee.'' Our Christian hearts ought to shine upward, 
outward, and reflexively. 

First of all, Ave must let our liearts shine upward. 
''Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the 
Lord is risen upon thee." We ought to give God the 
glory. There is the trouble; we are trying to get a little 
glory for ourselves. Every man who does anything is 
willing to talk about what he is doing; every woman who 
does anything wants the glory for herself, and just in 
that way we are robbing God of His glory, taking the 
missionary spirit out of the churches and robbing im- 
mortal souls of salvation. Oh, that we could all sing, 
every service, All glory be to God on high, and keep on 
singing it until we will consider it an offense to give us 
praise for anything. AVhat praise do I deserve? Nothing. 
What praise do you deserve? Nothing. Why is it we 
are constantly worrying about this and that? Because 
we have the wrong idea, that some man ought to have the 
praise for it. None of us deserves praise. When we have 
done our very best, we have only done partly our duty, 
and when we have done our duty, we should look up and 
thank God we are able to do our duty. If I have any 
strength at all to stand here, who gave it to me but God? 
And if I have any Avisdom at all, who gave it to me but 
God? If I have any gift at all, how could I ever have it 
but by God's grace and mercy? If you have any gift, 
who deserves the glory but God alone? We should stop 
thinking some man is going to get the glory, and all join 
hand to hand and heart to heart, and let our hearts shine 
upward and give all glory to our Master. We should not 
be talking about which one has the best Sunday School 
class, or which one is doing this or that better than the 
other; we should simply say, All glory be to God on 
high, and then our hearts would begin to shine upward. 

And after shining upward, our hearts will begin to 
shine outward. We find this shining outward goes in 
any way — any direction; it consists of gifts — gifts of 
money; gifts of prayer and praise. "The multitude of 
camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of Midian and 
Ephah; all they from Sheba shall come; they shall bring 



138 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

gold and incense; and they shall show forth the praises 
of the Lord.'^ If a man is a Christian, as I say, he is 
going to shine out; he is going to take his means that 
God gave him and hand it over for the special purpose 
of sending missionaries out to the world; he is going to 
use his tongue to praise God; he is going to shine out. 
As long as a man does not care whether he worships God 
or not, he can keep his tongue quiet; but when he is once 
filled with God's eternal light he cannot keep quiet in 
congregational singing. I knew a woman who could not 
sing Old Hundred if you gave her a hundred dollars, yet 
you could not have hired her for a thousand dollars to 
keep quiet when the congregation began to sing. She 
sang because filled with love to God, filled with God's 
light, she let it shine out. We are told they shall 
even come from Midian and Ephah and from Sheba, and 
shall all praise the Lord. Are you surprised when I urge 
upon you to buy a hymn-book. If you were going to war 
I would want you to take a sword; I would want you to 
go prepared. What would any one think of an army leav- 
ing its weapons at home? That is about the way most 
people go to church ; they sit down without a hymn-book ; 
they sit down without a Bible and without prayer. Let 
your light shine out. Two thousand voices all praising 
God will bring everybody to Christ who comes to hear. 
Then see that we do not sit down and refuse to make use 
of the weapons God gave us. Shine with gifts. Shine 
Avith our lives. 

There is nothing that has such an influence in a 
community as a good Christian life. A man came from 
the east not long ago and stopped at one of our cities in 
this state, and asked a friend, What kind of people are 
out west? Why, he replied, what kind of people are east? 
All bad. Well, he said, that is just the kind we have 
west; they are all bad. The same day another man stop- 
ped at the same house, going west, and asked what kind 
of people he would find out there. What kind of neigh- 
bors did you leave in the east? was the reply. They are 
all good there. You Avill find them all good out west, too. 
A bad man will find bad neighbors wherever he goes; a 



EPIPHANY. 139 

good man will make good neighbors wherever he goes. 
You understand what I mean. Let your light shine out. 
Go into a community and live as God wants you to live, 
and you are preaching every day with your silence, and 
with your life, a sermon that will go down deep into the 
heart of every neighbor. 

Then we ought to shine reflexively. We are told, "And 
the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the 
brightness of thy rising.'' We are told again of these 
people, "they shall bring gold and incense; and they 
shall show forth the praises of the Lord." — indicating 
the reflex action of the light. If you give missionaries 
to the world, if you give gifts and light to the world, that 
light must come back again. This is true wherever you 
look. It is true in nature. When the leaves fall down 
from the tree, the tree does not lose anything; the leaves 
protect the roots during the winter, and the next spring 
will send forth buds again more beautiful than ever. The 
ocean loses nothing when it gives its waters to the rays 
of the sun ; when it is lifted up in a cloud and carried over 
the mountains, covers them with snow ; the next summer's 
heat melts the snow and brings the water down the moun- 
tains and back to the ocean again. No difference what 
you do, when you throw a light out it is going to come 
back again. Cast thy bread upon the waters ; for thou 
Shalt find it after many days. And so you will find mis- 
sionary work always does pay. Our forefathers were all 
heathen. Did you ever think of that? We did not come 
from Israel; we came from men and women who used to 
cut each other's heads off with stone knives in Europe, 
and if missionaries had not been sent to them, we would 
all have been cannibals today. See what we are doing 
now that the Gospel came to us. We are called to bring 
the Gospel back to where it started. The light must 
come back again, and you will find that the more you do 
for God's kingdom, the more it will do for you. It is a 
great blessing for you to get interested in the world's sal- 
vation, because then you will find you will be interested 
in your own. The church that does not interest itself in 
the salvation of souls beyond the seas, is not much inter- 



140 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

ested in the salvation of souls at home. Just as soon as 
I become intensely interested in the salvation of the peo- 
ple living on the other side of the globe, just so soon will 
I become interested in the salvation of father and mother, 
of son and daughter; but whenever we are willing to 
allow a man to be damned on the other side of the world, 
we are willing that father and mother shall be damned 
and that the children shall be damned. The missionary 
spirit cannot be confined to a little heart; it either must 
go out to the world, or it dies. May God our heavenly 
Father, give us this light until it shall shine forth by 
gifts, and prayers, and songs of praise, until we shall be 
intensely interested in the welfare of every Christian mis- 
sionary on God's earth, and then by reflex action may 
the light come back to us, until we be more and more 
interested in our own salvation, in the salvation of our 
children, in the salvation of our friends, yes, and in the 
salvation of our enemies. Arise, shine forth, dear Chris- 
tian friends, the balance of your days. Amen. 

PRAYER. 

O God, our heavenh^ Father, we pra}^ Thee this evening that Thou 
wilt give to Thy servants all over the world a real consciousness of 
what they are here for, and of what it means for them to stand as 
dying men before a perishing world. O Father in heaven, Thou who 
seest the poor heathen who are still living in ignorance all around this 
world, and seest the inactivity of Thy Church, do Thou send the mes- 
senger of God, who himself shall enlighten and shall be the means of 
sending others, until hand in hand and heart to heart, we shall carry 
out the great heart of God in its blessing to the darkened heart of the 
world. Hear this our prayer for Jesus sake, who taught us to pray: 

Our Father who art in heaven ; Hallowed be Thy name ; Thy 
kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven; Give 
us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us ; And lead us not into temptation ; 
But deliver us from evil ; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



FIRST SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 

Thinking Sunday School Teachers. 

Rom. 12:1-5. 

1 BESEECH you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that 
ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, 
which is your reasonable service. And be ye not conformed to 
this world : but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that 
ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God. 
For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is 
among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; 
but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the 
measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, and all 
members have not the same office; so we, being many, are one body in 
Christ, and every one members one of another. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth: 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved Teachers and Officers of the First Lutheran Sun- 
day School J and Christian Hearers : 

I rejoice to have such a corps of teachers as we have 
in this church, and to have such officers, who are willing 
to give their bodies as a sacrifice to carry on the work 
that is to be done in this city by this congregation. I 
would, therefore, have you, in the very beginning, not to 
think too much of yourselves. I should say, in the lan- 
guage of Paul, through the grace given unto me, to every 
man that is among you, not to think of himself more 
highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, 
according as God hath dealt to every man the measure 
of faith. We read in our latest missionary reports of 
Christian schools that are being held in heathen lands, 
and how many thousands of children are being brought 
out of the darkness of heathendom into the glorious light 
of the kingdom of God by Christian schools every day, 

141 



142 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

and when I hear of those Christian schools in heathen 
lands, I sometimes feel that I would like to move my 
family into those Christian spots in heathen lands, where 
I could have a Sunday school every day. If a parochial 
school which educates the children every day in matters 
pertaining to the soul is such a wonderful blessing, surely 
we cannot overestimate the value of a Sunday school 
which, though it only occuxjies a short time, reaches a 
great many people that otherwise could not be reached. 
I know of some churches that have parochial schools in 
which children are educated from Monday morning until 
Friday evening in the Word of God, and then you find no 
Sunday school in those churches. That is a mistake. If 
I had a parochial school in this church that would edu- 
cate all the children five or six days in a week, I should 
still insist upon a Sunday school, for a Sunday school 
is not only, for children that can go every day to a paro- 
chial or public school, but the Sunday school should be 
for the pastor, and for the older people as well as for 
the young, as one large school, to study the Word of 
God. The Apostle Paul, of all the apostles, was the 
deepest thinker. Peter tells us himself that he was so 
deep that at times he was hard to understand; but this 
great logician and theologian was not only a thinker 
himself, but he wanted others to think; he wanted these 
Romans, gifted men, to use their minds to think of the 
deep things that are found in God's Word. The more I 
study God's Word, and the more I compare it with the 
education of people of later days, the more I am con- 
vinced that we need thinking teachers; we need the very 
best men and women that can be found in the Church 
of God to educate the rest in this glorious truth that 
lies before us tonight. I will, therefore, ask you to medi- 
tate a few moments with me, as teachers, officers and 
hearers, on the theme, 

THINKING SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS. 

I. They must think deeply of God. 
II. They must think of the world and the church. 
III. They must work harmoniously together. 



FIRST SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 143 

I. Thinking Sunday school teachers must think 
deeply of God — of His willy of His sacrifice and of His 
mercies. 

1. "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your 
mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and accep- 
table, and perfect will of God." The first duty we have 
as teachers is to knoAv the will of our heavenly Father, 
and it is not hard to find out, in general, what that will 
is. This Book is called the Old and the New Testament. 
Testament itself means will. The Old Testament means 
the will of God given before Christ was born, and x^w 
New Testament means the will of God given in the later 
days after Christ was born. When we read through the 
Bible carefully, we find out that in this Book God has 
told us the will of the Father, tlie will of the Son, and 
the will of the Holy Ghost. We find in general it is the 
will of God that all men should be saved. We find in 
this Old Testament the words : "As I live, saith the 
Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the Avicked, but 
that the wicked should turn from his evil way and live." 
We find in the New Testament these words, contained in 
the will : "God so loved the world that He gave His only 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should 
not perish, but have everlasting life." We find in the 
Old Testament the will of God expressed in the Divine 
law, that we should love God with all our heart, with all 
our soul, and mind, and strength, and our neighbor as 
ourselves. We find in the New Testament that this law 
is the schoolmaster that is to bring us to Christ. We 
find in this Book the words : "Search the Scriptures, for 
in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they 
which testify of Me." We find in this Book these words : 
"Blessed are they that hear the W^ord of God and keep 
it." We find in this Word another message, and that 
is: "And that from a child thou hast known the Holy 
Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation 
through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by 
inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for 
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 
that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly fur- 



144 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

nished unto all good works." One of the very first duties, 
therefore, of you as teachers is to study the Word of 
God that you may know the will of the Father, who surely 
wanted the world saved, or He would not have given His 
only Son to die for us. You must study this Word that 
you may know the will of Jesus Christ, who surely wanted 
the world saved or He would not have laid down His 
life on Calvary, and cried out : "Him that cometh unto 
Me I will in no wise cast out.'' Study this Word that you 
may know the will of the Holy Spirit, who surely wanted 
everybody saved, or He would not call, and call, and call, 
and gather, and gather, and gather, and enlighten and 
sanctify and keep His people. The call is going out today 
all over the world: Come to your Savior. Turn to the 
true and living God. Escape for your life ! 

Knowing, then, that this is the will of God, it be- 
comes our duty to search the Bible diligently; not only 
to search it at home, but to make use of every help 
that we can get. It is well understood in public schools 
that the teacher w^ho does not attend the conventions, 
who does not attend the teachers' meetings shall be barred 
from teaching, and it is perfectly correct that that should 
be done. If we want to be teachers at all, we should try 
to be just as efficient and sufficient as we possibly can. 
One of the very first principles, therefore, of a good Sun- 
day school should be that every teacher, if he possibly 
can, should make it his duty and his privilege to attend 
the teachers' meetings, for a twofold purpose: one is to 
get knowledge that he has not got, and the other is to 
give knowledge to others that they have not got. While 
I say this, I say it with all love and all patience. Let us 
not forget, dear friends, that long life on certain lines 
makes us live on those lines, and it is hard to get out 
of them. Let us not forget that only a few months back 
we had a very small teachers' meeting of our own; smiie 
of you who are the most enthusiastic today were not 
attending the teachers' meetings at all a year ago. There 
may be others who cannot see their way clear to attend 
even now. Let us have very much patience with them 
and not criticize them harshly. Pray God to help us all 



FIRST SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 145 

9 

to see that there is more wisdom in many than in few; 
help us to see that we should be helpers among each 
other; that we should work together to find out the glo- 
rious will of God. 

Notice what kind of a will it is: It is a good will, 
an acceptable will, and a perfect will. The question is 
not so much what does the pastor want, or what does 
the superintendent want, or what do the officers want^ 
but what does God want? God's will is good; God's will 
is not only good, but it is acceptable; not only accepta- 
ble, but perfect, and the more we can all come together 
and sit down at the feet of the great Teacher, Jesus 
Christ, and listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit, the 
more we will be equipped to be thinking teachers. Do 
not forget what was said by the wisest man ever born of 
woman, aside from Jesus Christ Himself. He said. The 
fear of God is the beginning of all wisdom. The very 
beginning of all wisdom; and if the fear of God is the 
beginning of all wisdom, how can a man be wise when 
he has not got the fear of God in his heart; and if he 
does not know the will of God, how can he have the fear 
of God in his heart? Let us, therefore, think very much 
of the will of God. 

2. Then, as teachers we should not only think of 
the will of God, but of the great sacrifice that He made. 
"I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, 
that you present your bodies a living sacrifice." Why 
does this great apostle lay such great stress upon this 
living sacrifice? Because he has in mind another sacri- 
fice that was made, namely, the sacrifice of God, and that 
was the sacrifice of death. Oh, we cannot dwell too 
much upon the death of the Lord Jesus Christ on Cal- 
vary; that is the one story, the sweet old story that the 
teacher must not only teach, but hear, every week and 
every day; we must not only hear it, but think and medi- 
tate upon it very much. I confess as I stand before you 
tonight, that about every good thought I have ever had, 
and about everything that has gone to make half a man 
of me, has been received very close to the cross of Christ. 
10 



146 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

There havfe been times when I felt in my own carnal way 
like taking revenge on some people, and then I would 
walk up to that cross and think a little while; I would 
hear my Savior saying there, as the blood was running 
down His hands and His feet and His breast, "Father, 
forgive them, for they know not what they do" ; and the 
longer I stayed there, the more I was compelled to say, 
Oh, fool, why not let this revenge be washed out of thy 
heart with the prayer of Christ, Father, forgive them, for 
they know not what they do. I have often thought. Oh, 
that I might be in a world where God's laws were not 
so strict; that I might be in a world where I might obey 
that voice of the flesh which says, Come on, eat, drink 
and be merry, have a joyful time; then I have walked up 
to the cross of Calvary, and as I stood there and looked 
at that crown of thorns upon my Savior's head, and at 
the wounds of Him hanging there in death, standing in 
the presence of God alone, I have said to myself, If those 
feet are bleeding and dying for me, must I permit my 
feet to walk on forbidden paths? If that One is dying 
there for me, atoning for a sinful world, must I go out 
and enjoy myself, treading upon the very thorns that are 
now pressing upon His bleeding brow? And the more 
I stood there, the more I felt that the victory would be 
given to the spirit, and that the flesh must be conquered. 
Standing before the cross of Calvary, let us not forget 
to sing every day of the blood of Calvary. Let us not 
forget to sing 

"Alas, and did my Savior bleed, 
And did my Sovereign die? 
Would He devote that sacred head 
For such a worm as I? 

Was it for crimes that I had done 

He groaned upon the tree? 
Amazing pity ! grace unknown ! 

And love beyond degree! 

Well might the sun in darkness hide. 

And shut his glories in, 
When Christ, the mighty Maker, died 

For man the creature's sin ! 



' FIRST SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 147 

Thus might I hide my blushing face, 

While His dear cross appears; 
Dissolve my heart in thankfulness, 

And melt my eyes to tears. 

But drops of grief can ne'er repay 

The debt of love I owe; 
Here, Lord, I give myself away, 

'Tis all that I can do." 

I would have you go to the cross every day, and as 
you look into the face of Jesus, say, and pray: 

"O bleeding Head, and wounded, 

And full of pain and scorn; 
In mockery surrounded 

With cruel crown of thorn. 
O Head, before adorned 

With grace and majesty. 
Insulted now, and scorned — 

All Hail ! I bid to Thee." 

I would have you stand before that cross and say : 

"Rock of Ages, cleft for me, 

Let me hide myself in Thee! 
Let the water and the blood, 

From Thy riven side that flowed, 
Be of sin the double cure. 

Save me. Lord, and make me pure." 

And think, and think, and think, of the great sacri- 
fice of God, until that message of John, Behold the Lamb 
of God that taketh away the sins of the world ! shall 
drive you to your Sunday school class to teach your chil- 
dren the wonderful love of God. That was a dead sacri- 
fice, and that being a dead sacrifice, the great apostle 
says, Now give Him a living sacrifice. 

3. I would have you to think deeply of His mercies. 
"I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of 
God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, 
acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service." 
Oh, the mercies of God! Oh, the mercy of God that per- 
mitted us to be born in a civilized land! Oh, the mercy 
of God that permitted mo^t of us to be born of Christian 



148 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

mothers and begotten of Christian fathers! Oh, the 
mercy of God that took some of us, even in our infancy, 
and brought us to the altar of God in Holy Baptism! 
Oh, the mercy of God that taught us the Ten Command- 
ments, the Apostles^ Creed and the Lord's Prayer and 
many other beautiful prayers long before we remember 
anything! Oh, the mercy of God that sent to our old 
homes that good pastor who instructed us in the Word of 
God, though at the time w^e did not understand exactly 
what we were doing, but the seed was sown there, and 
it remained and brought forth a harvest, and today we 
are reaping its benefits! Oh, the mercy of God, that has 
been watching over us when we would have gone astray, 
and led us back again! Oh, the mercy of God that has 
thrown obstacles in our way that have kept us from 
going to destruction! Oh, the mercy of God that has 
led us throughout all our trials when mother was not 
with us, and when father was not with us, but has led 
us up to the present hour! And oh, the mercy of God 
that reaches down and takes us up in His arms, for the 
Son of man is come to seek and to save the lost! Oh, 
the mercy of God that forgave us our many sins day 
after day until the present hour! Oh, the mercy of God 
that has kept us out of hell ! Oh, the mercy of God that 
has given us the health and the strength not only to be 
Christians, but to be teachers and to show others the 
right way! Oh, the mercy of God that has kept us this 
hour and enabled us to sit here at the cross of Christy to 
think of His. will, of His sacrifice, and of His mercies! 
Think of these things, my friends, and then you will be- 
come efficient and sufficient teachers. 

II. Thinking Sunday school teachers must also 
think of the world and of the church. "And be ye not 
conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the 
renewing of your mind.'' Be not conformed to this 
world. 

1. What is this world? It does seem to me that is 
a question that ought to stand before the minds of teach- 
ers day by day — What is the world? Do we mean this 
earth? Oh, no, the Church of God is on this earth. When 



FIRST SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 149 

we speak of the world, of people, as a rule we mean that 
part of the world that is still in darkness; that is not 
regenerated ; that is not living a spiritual life. We speak 
of those people who are still in their natural state, and, 
as we heard this morning, there are many, many millions 
of people, not only in heathen lands, but all around us, 
who are simply living the animal life, trying to enjoy 
themselves, caring nothing w^hatever about the will of 
God; their whole object in life is to eat, drink, and wear 
new clothing, to be in style, to go on and get everything 
out of this life that can be gotten out of it, and let the 
future take care of itself. It is not very hard for you 
to understand Avhat the world is ; you can see it all around 
you ; and you can not only see it all around you, but you 
can see a good deal of it right in you. If you will simply 
hunt up that spirit on this earth that says, what is the 
difference what God wants ; that says, what is the differ- 
ence what the preacher says; that says, what is the dif- 
ference what the church teaches, come on now, and have 
a good time, come on and sow your wild oats, come on 
and enjoy yourself; if God did not want you to do this 
and that, why did He give you the desire? So come on, 
and live just as any lower animal would live; you will 
find that is the world, and I say, dear teachers, you can- 
not help but think of that w^orld if you wanMo be efficient 
teachers. 

2. On the other hand, you ought to get clear in your 
minds what the Church is. Remember, the Church is not 
made of stone, nor of brick; remember the Church is not 
a building; remember the Church is not made up of 
hypocrites; remember there is a Church militant and a 
Church triumphant, and remember that Church militant 
is still here on earth, and is mixed up with a great 
many people who call themselves Christians and are not; 
remember there are not many churches in the world, there 
is only one Church, and it is that which we confess in 
the Apostles' Creed when we say, I believe in the Holy 
Ghost, the Holy Christian Church, and this Holy Chris- 
tian Church is found there where the Holy Sacraments 
are administered according to His Word, and where the 



150 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

Word is preached in its purity; and those are members 
of God's Church who have put on Christ Avhen they were 
baptized, and live in Him. There is a great difference 
between congregations, and the Church; there is a great 
difference betw^een denominations and the Church. The 
Church is made up of all true believers in the Lord Jesus 
Christ, Y/ho are faithful unto Him until death, and at 
last shall receive the crown of eternal life. Congrega- 
tions may have hypocrites in them — the Church of God 
has none. The apostle says the Church of God shall be 
without spot and without wrinkle. The Church of God, 
therefore, consists of faithful men and women who be- 
lieve in God, and who are faithful until death, and will 
receive, therefore, the crown of eternal life. 

When you think about the Church as it really is, 
and the world as it really is, you must notice the great 
difference between the two. "And be ye not conformed 
to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of 
your minds." From these words you can readily see 
that there is a great gulf between the world and the 
Church, and the only way to come from the world to 
the Church is to make a transformation, and the trans- 
formation need not be a visible one, of your bodies, but 
it must be a mental transformation, a transformation of 
heart. A child of God is no more like he was when a child 
of the devil, than heaven is like hell. A Sunday school 
teacher must think on these lines and ask himself the 
question every day. Am I transformed, or am I still con- 
formed to the world? There is a difference between the 
world and the Church, as there is a difference between 
the death of a child of God and a child of sin; as there 
must be a difference on the Judgment Day between a 
man that is saved and a man that is lost; as there must 
be a difference between a man in hell and a man in 
heaven. The Lord God said of Israel that He would 
take them out of Egypt, and show that there is a differ- 
ence between Israel and Egypt, and in the present day 
it becomes absolutely necessary for every preacher, and 
for every teacher to think, and think, and think, until 
he can draw the line between the world and the Church. 



FIRST SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 151 

If there is absolutely no difference between the world 
and the Church, then there is no use in having a Church, 
then there is no use in having a Sunday school. If it 
means after all that we are all going to be saved when 
we die, for my part I am willing to give up the Church. 
You understand what I mean. I maintain that to be 
a child of God requires a transformation that makes me 
think as I did not think before I was a child of God, 
and because I think differently now than I did before, I 
am no more in opposition to my thoughts as a Christian, 
than a child of the devil is in opposition to his thoughts 
as a child of the devil. Sunday school work and Church 
work is not to get a man that loves the devil to serve God, 
but to get the man that loves the devil to hate the devil 
and love God and serve Him. A transformation must 
take place in the teacher and the one to be taught, and 
unless w^e get clear in our minds that there is a line that 
is as evident as the gulf between heaven and hell, be- 
tween church members and children of the devil, we never 
can be thinking Sunday school teachers. 

III. This leads me finally to state that thinking 
Sunday school teachers must Avork harmoniously together, 
hody and soulj man and God, man and man. 

1. You must work harmoniously with yourself, 
body and soul. "I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by 
the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living 
sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your rea- 
sonable service. Eemember, dear teachers, that your 
bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost, and it is your 
duty to keep that body holy, to keep that body accepta- 
ble unto God, and to render a living sacrifice. You all 
understand what a sacrifice means, it means something 
that you feel. When Jesus Christ died on Calvary He 
did hot take the strong drink that was to rob Him of 
feeling. He refused to take it because He wanted to die 
and feel the very sufferings of hell, that He might save 
you and me, and not until the stupor of death had come 
did He allow the vinegar to touch His lips. A sacrifice, 
therefore, means suffering. Now on our part we are not 
to die because we are Christians, or because we are Sun- 



152 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

day school teachers, but we should make these bodies of 
ours work harmoniously with the soul for God. I say 
with the soul, for it is said here: "And be not con- 
formed to this world ; but be ye transformed by the renew- 
ing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, 
and acceptable, and perfect will of God." In other words, 
your mind must be transformed and become like the mind 
of Christ, and then your body must be used as a sacri- 
fice to work harmoniously with your mind. You can sit 
at home and think and think, I ought to go and hunt up 
this Sunday school scholar, and I ought to go and see 
that one, and bring them to the house of God, but if you 
are thinking that way, and you are not willing to sacri- 
fice your feet to let them walk, and not willing to sacri- 
fice your body to go and do something; if you are not 
willing to lend your ears to hear, and your eyes to see, 
and make use of your body for the purpose of carrying 
out the thoughts of your mind, your work is all in vain 
— in fact, you are doing nothing. Can you not see, there- 
fore, that to be a thinking Sunday school teacher, you 
must make your thoughts move your hands, and your 
feet, and your body in conformity with your thinking? 

Not only must you have harmony , between body and 
soul, but you must have harmony between man and God. 
In other words, we should not try to get God to do things 
the way we want them done, but we should try to do 
things the way God wants them done. "Be ye trans- 
formed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may 
prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, 
will of God.'' Let us, therefore, learn to work in har- 
mony with God. I never knew a minister of the Gospel 
to fail in His ministry if he stuck right to the literal 
Word of God, if faithful in the teaching of that truth ; 
and no Sunday school teacher will fail if he endeavors 
to conform himself entirely to the will of God and work 
harmoniously with Him. The great trouble is this, we 
get notions of our own and tr3'^ to make God come and 
work with us instead of trying to get ourselves to work 
with Him. 

The last thought I would give you tonight is this, 



FIRST SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 153 

that we should work harmoniously together, man and 
man. "For as we have many members in one body, and 
all members have not the same office: so we, being many, 
are one body in Christ, and every one members one of 
another." We can easily see, dear friends, in our own 
bodily make up that we must be in harmony with our- 
selves. Man is made up of many different parts, and 
what would he do if any one part of his body would 
refuse to work in harmony with the other? Our hands 
are made to toil; our feet are made to walk; our eyes are 
made to see; our ears are made to hear; our mouths are 
made to speak, and eat, and sing songs of praise; every 
part of our body has its function, and unless these parts 
all work together, w^e call the man sick. If any one part 
of the body refuses to act, w-e say that man is an imper- 
fect man. It does not kill a man to take off his hand, 
but, oh, how much better he could w^ork if he had it. It 
will not necessarily kill a man to cut off one foot, but 
how much better he could walk if he had it. It does not 
kill a man necessarily to lose his sight, or to lose his 
hearing, but how much better he could get along with 
them. And so it is with regard to the Sunday school 
teachers. ^'For as we have many members in one body, 
and all members have not the same office: so we, being 
many, are one body in Christ, and every one members 
one of another." It becomes our duty, therefore, first 
of all, when we work together as man and man, to re- 
member that we have enemies that will make us all the 
trouble that we need. Do not think, dear teachers and 
superintendents, that because we have now and then mat- 
ters that bother us, that therefore things are all upside- 
down. I would call your attention to this great fact, that 
just as long as we as teachers and superintendents and 
pastor all work together for the spreading of God's king- 
dom, that the devil will try his bej^t to make us all the 
trouble he can; that the world itself will not rest, and 
that our own flesh will do its work. Do not forget that 
Christ told us we have three great enemies, the devil, 
the world, and our own flesh, and these three enemies 
you will always find where the kingdom of God is being 



154 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

spread. You need not expect the devil to do very much 
harm in churches where they do not preach the Gospel 
in its purity, or in a church where they are not striving 
to spread God's kingdom or win souls heavenward, for 
he has his work done; there is nothing to do any more. 
The place the devil has work to do is where pastor and 
teachers and people are working for the downfall of Sa- 
tan's kingdom, and you might just as well expect an 
army to come here and try to rob us of our government 
and we not fight, as to expect the devil, and the world, 
and the flesh to be satisfied if we are here to try to over- 
throw his kingdom. Therefore become not discouraged 
when you find there are many obstacles in the way, and 
that Satan sometimes comes into our midst and stirs up 
even some of our own, who are working for the downfall 
of Satan's kingdom. 

Simply remember that we must work together; yes, 
we must go hand in hand. As I said a moment ago, a 
man with one hand is not a perfect man ; a man with no 
eyes cannot do the work of a man with eyes; therefore 
let us, as teachers, work together, and pray together, that 
all teachers must come and work harmoniously with us. 
Whenever w^e want to do anything let us decide by a 
majority vote, and let tjiat majority vote rule in all 
things except the doctrines of the Bible, which no man 
can overthrow. Eemember that we must work harmoni- 
ously, if this work is to be successful, and pray for it, 
and pray for it until the kingdom of God shall be ruled 
entirely by harmonious action on the part of professed 
Christians. 

Last of all, when we work together as man and man, 
let us remember that each one should know his place. 
"All members have not the same office." Again: "Hav- 
ing then gifts differing according to the grace that is 
given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy, accord- 
ing to the proportion of faith." Paul recognized the fact 
that we should all recognize, that God never intended 
that each one should have the mind of the other. What 
a good thing it is to have some one man who makes the 
best superintendent; some one man who makes the best 



FIRST SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 155 

assistant superintendent; some woman the best teacher 
for the little children and some one just fit for this class, 
and some one just fit for that class; and I cannot help 
thinking as I walk through our Sunday school here every 
Sunday morning. Avhat a blessed Sunday school it is, and 
how well nearly all of our teachers are fitted for the 
places they occupy. I thank God every day for my Sun- 
day school teachers; I thank Him every day for one who 
is so efficient, and for others who are so efficient down 
in that department where the little infants are brought. 
I cannot help thinking what a Godly woman is worth to 
the older infants, and Avliat Godly Avomen are worth to 
the little children; what it is worth to have men and 
women in our church that can teach the Bible so well to 
other men and other Avomen; and what a blessing it is 
to have so many men and women studying God's word 
from Sunday to Sunday. When we stop to think that 
two thousand years ago the great Church of God had only 
eleven Sunday School scholars, and has grown up to be 
what it is today with four hundred and fifty millions of 
people, and then think of the six* hundred and more that 
we have in this church alone, what a mighty future we 
have before us if we simply stand hand in hand and heart 
to heart, each willing to do the will of God, and think 
deeply of His will, and of His great sacrifice, and of His 
great mercies; v/hat a future we have before us if we 
think deeply of the world and of the church and of the 
great gulf between them, and if v/e have our bodies in 
Tiarmony with our souls; if we have man joined to God, 
and man to man; if we work together against the devil, 
the world, and our own sinful flesh, work in harmony 
and each one in his own place. Therefore, superintendent, 
know your place, and thank God that He has placed you 
where you are, as well as your assistant, and work to- 
gether, with your pastors, for the upbuilding of God's 
kingdom. Officers, repiember the special duty to which 
you have been called. You would not have been placed 
where you are if God had not seen fit to train you for that 
place, and therefore, be faithful. Do not forget the les- 

*Now nearlv 1200 enrolled. 



156 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

son of this first Sunday after Epiphany. Dp not forget 
the first recorded words of Jesus: "Wist ye not that I 
must be about My Father's business?" Oh, dear teach- 
ers and officers, we have got some of our Father's busi- 
ness to do this coming year. Let us pray God that we 
may be about His business, and be faithful, carrying out 
the Word from day to day, until many souls shall be 
strengthened for the trials they shall meet, and many 
others shall be won for the kingdom of heaven. Would 
that every one of us would resolve before we go out of 
this house tonight, from henceforth to be about the 
Father's business. Amen. 

PRAYER. 

O God, our heavenly Father, we thank Thee that Thou hast so 
blessed Thy Holy Word that these souls have been brought into Thy 
kingdom and rejoice in Thee. We ask Thee now to bless this message 
to our own souls. Help us to be thankful to Thee that we have minds 
with which to think, and help us to develop these minds by thinking of 
Him who gave them. O Lord, today fill our minds with Thy will, and 
make our wills conform with Thine. Help these wills of ours to be 
cleared and purified by the blood of Thy sacrifice. We thank Thee that 
Thou hast delivered us from the world and brought us into Thy church. 
We pray Thee that Thou wilt help us not to place the church in that 
light that it c'annot be distinguished from the world ; and help us not 
to treat the world in such a way that it cannot be distinguished from 
the church. We pray Thee that Thou wilt help us to work together in 
this coming year as we never have before, and O Father in heaven, 
give us that desire to have the communion of the Holy Ghost with us, 
that we may pray for Him day by day to sanctify us wholly to His 
work. Give Thy special blessing to Brother Smith and Dr. Sattler as 
superintendents of this school ; we pray Thee to give them special wis- 
dom every day and special strength to do that which is best for the 
glory of Thy name. We pray Thee to be with all those teachers in 
this upper room, from the room where Brother Qimmings teaches in 
one corner, to the room where Sister Cummings teaches in the other. 
May they all work hand in hand for the spreading of Thy kingdom. 
We ask Thy special blessing upon Mrs. Idleman, with all her assistants 
in the infant department. We ask Thy special blessing upon Miss Kline 
as superintendent of the home department. We ask Thy special blessing 
upon the choir of this Sunday School for their assistance in helping to 
praise God. We ask Thee, heavenly Father, to be with all those teachers 
who may be absent tonight; they may have reasons, O God, that are 
good in Thy sight, far better than we may know; we ask Thee to bless 



FIRST SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 157 

them. We pray Thee to bless the many scholars commg here from Sun- 
day to Sunday; we pray Thee to give them a special interest in the 
lesson. We ask Thee to help that every teacher that can be here on. 
Tuesday evening will be found in the teachers' meeting, not to please- 
the pastor, not to please the superintendents, not to please the teachers,, 
but to please Thee, O God. Hear this our prayer, and go with us all- 
through life, and finally, when this school of life is all ended, take us. 
home into the school of the holy angels, into the school of the saints 
on high, into the presence of Christ, our Lord, who taught us to pray: 
Our Father who art in heaven; Hallowed be Thy name; Thy 
kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven; Give 
us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation; 
But deliver us from evil; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



SECOND SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 

Christians in Christ. 
KOM. 12:6-16. 

jr^ AVING then gifts differing according to the grace that is given 
J ^ to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the pro- 
^ portion of faith; or ministry, let us wait on our ministering; 
or he that teacheth, on teaching; or he that exhorteth, on exhortation; 
he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with dili- 
gence; he that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness. Let love be without 
dissimilation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. 
Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love ; in honor pre- 
ferring one another; not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving 
the Lord; rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in 
prayer; distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality. 
Bless them which persecute you: bless and curse not. Rejoice with them 
that do not rejoice, and weep with them that weep. Be of the same 
mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men 
of low estate." 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth: 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved in Christ: 

The question that a faithful pastor must ask himself 
every day is not how many members there are in his 
church, but how many Christians. Are we Christians? 
That is the question ministers of the Gospel should ask 
themselves; that is the question church members should 
ask themselves; that is the question that comes home to 
us tonight with force when y^^e consider the Gospel lesson 
which we have just read before this service. I wonder how 
many preachers there are in the United States today who 
are preaching a Christ crucified who made wine; I wonder 
how many there are who are preaching on the second 
chapter of John and the first eleven verses, the Gospel 

158 



SECOND SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 159 

lesson selected for this dkij. I Avonder how many there 
are who have the courage to stand up and say that Jesus 
Christ made wine which would make people intoxicated 
if they would drink enough of it. I wonder, furthermore, 
how man}^ professed Christians there are today who, if 
their daughter were to be married, would invite Jesus 
Christ to the wedding, providing it were understood that 
he would make one hundred and eight gallons of wine 
and set it out by the porch. I wonder how many people 
there are today who have the courage to stand by the 
true ^'\^ord of God in all these things I have mentioned, 
and Avlio are Avilling to live in Christ in order that they 
may work in Him as members of His body. ^Ve are 
told in the last verse of the text for last Sunday evening : 
^^So Ave, being many, are one body in Christ, and every 
one members one of another.'' If we are in Christ, how 
could Ave liA^e any other kind of a life but the one that 
Christ would haA^e us liA^e on earth? Let me ask the ques- 
tion tonight, HoAV many of us are living in Christ? 

CHPvISTIANS IN CHRIST 

is the theme Avhich I hope the Holy Spirit will apply to 
your hearts tonight Avith fore 
in Christ aa^II do two thinsrs: 



your hearts tonight Avith force from on high. Christians 



•■!r>' 



I. They will abhor that which is evil. 
II. They Avill cleave to that AAiiich is good. 

I. ''Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that 
AA'hich is evil; cleaA^e to that which is good." That verse 
is the key to the text of the CA^ening. There are certain 
things that every Christian in Christ must abhor, and 
the first that I Avould mention is jealousy. 

1. ''Having then gifts differing according to the 
grace that is given to us, Avhether prophecy, let us pro- 
phesy according to the proportion of faith; or ministry, 
let us wait on our ministering; or he that teacheth, on 
teaching; or he that exhorteth, on exhortation; he that 
giA^eth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth with 
diligence; he that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness." We 



160 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

find that Christians have different gifts, and, having these 
different gifts, they are very apt to become just a little 
jealous of each other. You cannot imagine that any mem- 
ber of the human body is in conflict with the other. My 
right arm is not in conflict with my left ; my eye is not in 
conflict with my ear, nor the ear with the eye. Not one 
member in a human body can be in conflict with the other, 
or dare to be jealous of the other's action, and any one 
member refusing to do its part, throws a burden on the 
other parts of that body. Just so it is with regard to the 
Christian. He is a member of the body of Christ, and 
every Christian is a member of the body of Christ. If 
one member is not satisfied with his position in life, with 
the gift that God has given him, and becomes jealous of 
others that have higher positions, he is not ready to do 
as it is said here he should do, to give honor to another. 
If there is any one thing in the world that a man must 
despise and abhor, if he lives in Christ Jesus, it is jealousy. 
You cannot imagine Jesus Christ jealous of any one. Did 
you ever see Him angry and envious because some one 
prospered more than He did? No. And yet there are 
people who call themselves professed Christians who can- 
not bear to see any one prosper. I have often thought if 
there is any one person in the world that ought to be 
free from jealousy, it is the minister of the Gospel, and 
yet I must confess that I have found just as much jealousy 
.among ministers of the Gospel as among doctors or law- 
yers. The whole world is full of jealousy. Sin has 
brought pride into the world, and pride has planted jeal- 
ousy into the hearts of the people, and even those best 
gifted are sometimes guilty of this great crime. How 
much harm has been done in this world by jealousy! Look 
at the great battle fought down at Balaklava, which has 
been made the subject of Tennyson\s song, sung of the 
Six Hundred who rode down to death : 

"Cannon to right of them, 
Cannon to left of them, 
Cannon in front of them 

Voleyed and thundered; 
Storm'd at with shot and shell. 



SECOND SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 161 

Boldly they rode and well, 
Into the jaws of Death 
Into the mouth of Hell 
Rode the six hundred." 

But, my friends, four hundred and fifty of that six 
hundred fell upon that battlefield; and only one hundred 
and fifty came back. Why were there so many men slaugh- 
tered that day? All on account of one man being jealous 
of another. Had it not been that Lord Lucan was jealous 
of Lord Cardigton, Tennyson would not have written that 
poem, and four hundred and fifty men would not have been 
slaughtered on that field of death. And thus we can look 
at the very death of Jesus Christ. It was the jealousy of 
the religious Pharisees, who could not bear to see a greater 
teacher than they in the city of Jerusalem. How many 
times we find in the Christian Church that just when 
everything seems to prosper most, there are hearts so full 
of jealousy they almost run over. They cannot be in 
Christ and have that jealous heart. Let us ask ourselves 
the question tonight, are we in Christ Jesus? If so, let 
us abhor that spirit that is apt to creep into each one 
of our hearts, and down it Avith all the power that God 
can give us. 

2. Another thing we must abhor, if we are Chris- 
tians in Christ, is hypocrisy. "Let love be without dis- 
simulation." Or, according to most translators, "Let love 
be without hypocrisy." You cannot imagine Jesus Christ 
hypocritical ; you cannot imagine He ever pretended to be 
anything He was not. He never stood up boldly and 
boasted that He was the Son of God, but rather said, "I 
am the Son of man," and yet He could have said, "I am the 
Son of God" without boasting, and He did say it at times 
to give glory to the Father; but we find the Lord Jesus 
Christ putting the girdle around Him, and washing the 
feet of His disciples, teaching true humility. — Always 
humble, always the same Savior, because He is the God- 
man. How can you and I put on Christ and pretend to be 
what we are not? How can people pretend to be professed 
Christians when they are after all children of the devil? 

11 



162 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

How can we pretend to be followers of the humble Naza- 
rene and be filled with pride? How can we pretend to walk 
in the footsteps of Jesus Christ on Sunday, and all week 
walk on paths He has forbidden? Let us abhor hypocrisy. 
Let us appear to be just what we are, nothing more, and 
nothing less. 

3. Another thing we must abhor if we are Christians 
in Christ is hatred. "Let love be without dissimulation. 
Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. 
Be kindly aff ectioned one to another with brotherly love f 
Our Lord Jesus Christ loved every one. "God so loved 
the world that He gave His only begotten Son that who- 
soever believeth in Him should not perish, but have ever- 
lasting life.'' Jesus said, "Come unto Me, all ye that labor 
and are hea^^ laden, and I will give you rest." He sat 
down among sinners and ate with them. He said Him- 
self, "The Son of man is come to seek and save that which 
was lost. I love thee with an everlasting love." How 
can any one be in Christ Jesus and not have love for his 
fellowmen? In other words, how can any one be in Christ 
Jesus and have hatred in his heart toward this one or that 
one? It sometimes occurs even in the Christian Church 
that when a certain one proposes anything, there are others 
who will fight it, just because they have hatred in their 
hearts toward that one. We cannot have that disposition 
and be in Christ Jesus. It is impossible. You might just 
as well expect the devil to live in the heart of Jesus Christ 
as to expect a man to dwell in Christ and have hatred in 
his heart toward any person on earth. The Word of God 
says love your enemies and do good to them which despite- 
tViWj use you. How can you, dear hearer, have the spirit 
of hatred in your heart against your brother, against any 
person on earth, against your enemy, and live in Christ 
Jesus? It is impossible. 

4. Christians in Christ must also abhor laziness. 
"He that ruleth, Avith diligence .... not slothful ,in 
business." You cannot find that Jesus Christ ever was 
lazy; wherever you find Him, He is doing something; 
even when He sits down on the well for a moment to rest. 
He there converts the Samaritan woman. When the even- 



SECOND SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 163 

ing comes, and His disciples fall asleep, He goes up on 
the mountain to pray. When Peter, and James, and John, 
cannot keep awake any longer. He goes out into the garden 
of Gethsemane and sweats drops of blood. Even before 
He began His ministry He took His tools in His hand 
and helped His foster father to build houses and barns. 
Always working, always doing something. Without Me, 
He says, ye can do nothing. I cannot imagine any one in 
the world, living in Christ Jesus, sitting down, slothful in 
business, not diligent in his work. A man may be lazy 
as long as He is not ^iritually alive ; but how a man can 
become a real, genuine Christian; how a man can actually 
believe, as we confess in the Creed, that there is an ever- 
lasting life, and everlasting punishment; how a man can 
believe that Jesus is the only way to heaven, and that there 
is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby 
man can be saved; how a man can know there are eight 
hundred and fifty millions of people in the world that 
never heard of this Only W^ay ; how a man can know that 
by the thousands they are perishing every moment, and 
can then sit down and idly say, I am a child of God, and 
I am in Christ, if everything else goes to destruction, I 
cannot understand. When a man is in Christ Jesus he 
must wake up and stop being slothful in business, in re- 
ligion, in anything he may engage in. Ask yourself the 
question: Am I diligent or not? Am I busy or not? Am I 
in Christ Jesus? That will settle it. The feet of Jesus 
were walking, not resting ; the hands of Jesus were bless- 
ing, not resting ; He was busy all the time, and even when 
He awoke from the dead He went to the gates of hell and 
cried, "Speak, hell, speak, where is thy victory? Behold, 
Satan, behold thy kingdom crushed!" He was out of the 
grave and was busy; He did not lose one moment; one 
hour at Emmaus ; the next up in the little room with His 
disciples saying, "Peace be unto you." Wherever you find 
Him, He is doing good. You cannot put on Jesus Christ 
and sit down and do nothing. Christians must be busy 
people; they cannot be otherwise; they must abhor lazi- 
ness. 

5. Again, they must abhor cursing. "Bless them 



164 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

which persecute you; bless and curse not.'' Once in a 
while we find professed Christians who do not deny but 
that they may now and then utter a word that may be 
called by the best definition cursing; they call it a weak- 
ness; but I would have you understand that you cannot 
live in Christ Jesus and have that weakness; you cannot 
be in Christ and curse. Imagine Jesus Christ standing 
before this altar tonight, and I in Christ Jesus and I 
begin to curse; every one of you would say that is not 
Christ. How then can you, as professed Christians, dwell 
in Christ Jesus and have a cursing tongue in your mouths? 
The second commandment says, Thou shalt not take the 
name of the Lord thy God in vain, and that is the Word of 
Christ in whom the Christian dwells. 

6. Not only is it true that we must abhor cursing, 
but we should also abhor pride. "Be of the same mind one 
toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to 
men of low estate.'' How often we find even professed 
Christians trying to live a life away above the average 
people. How many there are that are ashamed to as- 
sociate with the common people. How many there are that 
would never go down into the slums, or work among the 
poor, or offer to assist them. How manj^ there are who 
seem to think it is wise to use big words which no one can 
understand ; who seem to think it is a good thing to belong 
to a church that is called ^.ristocratic ; who seem to think 
it is wise to appear high headed. My dear friends, Jesus 
Christ never belonged to any aristocratic church; Jesus- 
Christ never walked around dressed in pride; Jesus 
Christ was not ashamed to take the poor by the hand and 
assist them ; Jesus Christ Avas not willing to stone a poor 
woman because she had made a mistake; He was perfectly 
willing to get right down at the feet of the disciples and 
wash them, teaching them to be truly humble. When Jesus 
Christ was willing to do those things, how can you 
think you are so much better than any one else? How 
can you be proud? Remember that pride was the fall 
of the angel that became the devil; he fell on account 
of his pride; and he planted that pride into the heart of 
the natural man. If we stop to think that we are but 



SECOND SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 165 

dust; that before long we will be at the cemetery, going 
down into a hole five feet deep, and some poor mortal will 
say at the head of that grave, "Earth to earth; ashes to 
ashes; dust to dust;" remembering that we are becoming 
food for worms ; remembering the sins we have committed ; 
remembering that we have not a single gift that God can- 
not take away from us in a single moment, then why is 
there anything in us that should make any of us proud? If 
we live in Christ Jesus, we must abhor pride as we abhor 
the devil himself. 

7. And thus I might go on, but any one who has read 
that text T\'ill realize at once that it admonishes against 
sin in any form. "Abhor that which is evil," says the 
Apostle Paul. It is not hard to knoAv what evil is. Evil 
is sin, and sin is the transgression of tlie law. God's 
law says that He is the true and living God and we should 
have no other gods before Him; therefore abhor idolatry 
and Christless religions. The law of God says we shall 
not take His name in vain; therefore if you find your 
child cursing and using God's name in vain, punish that 
child so that it will be the last time it will ever be guilty 
of that sin. The law of God demands of us that we re- 
member the Sabbath Day to keep it holy. If you find that 
you are living on Sunday as though there were no Lord's 
Day ; if you find that you are lounging around instead of 
going to God's house; if you find that some daily paper 
is more interesting to you than God's Holy Word, remember 
that God said. Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy ; 
and if you find that God's Word is not your highest 
treasure you are there loving an evil that you ought to 
abhor. If you are not treating father and mother as you 
ought to, abhor that evil. If you do not love humanity, 
then you are a murderer; abhor that hatred. If you are 
not living a pure life, abhor yourself on account of that 
adultery. If you have taken one thing that is not your 
own, abhor yourself as a thief. If you have been guilty 
of telling things that are not true, abhor the lie for it is 
evil. If you are setting your heart upon things that ought 
not to belong to you, abhor that heart of covetousness. 
And so I would have you look over the category of all 



166 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

God's commandments, and whenever you disobey them, 
look upon those things as evils which you must abhor, if 
you would be a Christian in Christ. 

II. The other side of the same great truth is this: 
"Cleave to that which is good.'' The verses previous to 
the text will show us what we are to cleave to. "So we, 
being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members 
one of another." Your right arm must cleave to your 
body; your left arm must cleave to your body; all your 
members must cleave to your body, or you will cease to be 
a complete man, and therefore, I say, we must all cleave 
to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Oh, cling to Him! 
Cling to Him while you live ; cling to Him in the hour of 
death ; cling to Him in all eternity I 

"Rock of Ages, cleft for me, 

Let me hide myself in Thee ! 
Let the water and the blood. 

From Thy riven side that flowed, 
Be of sin the double cure. 

Save me. Lord, and make me pure." 
Cling to Him ! 

"But drops of blood can ne'er repay 

The debt of love I owe ; 
Here Lord, I give myself away ; 
'Tis all that I can do." 
Cling to Him ! 

"Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a 
crown of life," says Jesus. Cling to Him! "Him that 
Cometh unto Me I Avill in no wise cast out." Cling to 
Him! "As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in 
the death of the wicked, but that the wicked should turn 
from his evil Avay and live." Cling to Him! 

2. Not only should we cling to Jesus, but to the 
Word of God. "Having then gifts differing according to 
the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us 
prophesy according to the proportion of faith ; or ministry, 
let us wait on our ministering; or he that teacheth, on 
teaching; or he that exhorteth, on exhortation." You will 
notice all these words pertain to the searching of God's 



SECOND SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 167 

Word in one form or another. "Cleave to that which is 
good.'' If I were to leave it to a vote tonight which is the 
best Book in the world, ninety-eight out of a hundred 
persons would say the Bible is the best Book in the world. 
We all know it is the best Book. You sometimes hear peo- 
ple say the Word of God teaches things that are bad. If 
that Book taught things that are bad, every bad boy in 
Mansfield would want one. I never saw a bad boy in my , 
life that wanted a Bible. I never saw a bad boy in my 
life that did not want bad books. I never saw a bad man 
in my life that did not want bad books. If some man were 
to run down street tonight, with some one crying, Stop, 
thief! and he were to drop a book, and some one picking 
it up vrould say, it is a Bible, very few people Vv'ould be- 
lieve either that it was a Bible, or that the man was a 
thief. If the same man should run down street, and they 
would cry out "Horse thief,'' and he would drop a bottle, 
every one would believe it. You do not find this Book in 
the pocket of a thief. The Word of God is a good Book. 
I know that this world is bad enough, my friends, but 
what vrould it be without this Book? What would you 
and I be without this Book? I am willing to confess to- 
night that if it had not been for this Book, and some good 
people that this Book has made, that I for one, would be 
the worst man in the world. Whenever I do a bad deed 
I do not care to look into my Bible for the next hour. 
Whenever I do the best deed that I can do, I love to 
look into the Bible. My friends, this is the great Book 
that we want when we are born ; it is the Book we want 
along the path of life; it is the Book, O mothers and 
fathers, that you must put into the trunk of your boys and 
girls when they go away from home ; it is the Book that you 
must place on the table and the altar of the hom^; it is 
the Book the words of which must be put into the minds 
of our children. These catechumens coming to me every 
Saturday afternoon, most of whom have already learned 
the Sermon on the Mount, cannot be lost without their 
OAvn responsibility. What I want is to make people feel 
their responsibility. I used to think, when I first entered 
the ministry that if people were lost it was my fault. No, 



168 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

it is not. But it is my fault if I do not show them the 
way to be saved. After they have heard the words of this 
good Book, how to repent of their sins, how to believe in 
Christ and to find salvation, then the responsibility rests 
with them and not with me. Hold to the old Word of 
God! 

3. Not only hold to the Word of God, but I would 
have you hold to the Divine service. Paul said to these 
Komans, who had different gifts, that they should all do 
something. " . . whether prophecy, let us prophesy accord- 
ing to the proportion of faith." Some were to explain the 
Scriptures. Some had other work to do around the church 
". .or ministry, let us wait on our ministering." Some 
were to teach the Scriptures ''. . . or he that teacheth, on 
teaching" ". . . . or he that exhorteth, on exhortation." 
Some were to attend to the distribution of gifts, "he that 
giveth, let him do it with simplicity." Some were to have 
special authority "... he that ruleth, with diligence." 
Some were to labor with hands of mercy "he that soweth 
mercy, with cheerfulness." In other words, the Apostle 
Paul says there is something for every church member to 
do; there is something for every Christian to do who is 
in Christ, and the thing for him to do is to come to the 
Divine service and hear God's Word, and help sing songs 
of praise to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy 
Ghost; to join in the confession of faith. You take one 
coal and lay it by itself, and it is soon black; but take a 
number of them, and put them together, and a flame will 
start up that will burn. And so if you stay at home, in a 
short time your heart will become black with sin ; but meet 
with God's people, as you have to-day, and join voice to 
voice, until like one great flame the hearts of men all look 
upward, and there is an inspiration in a Christian con- 
gregation and in a Divine service that you can never 
overthrow. God said, "Where two or three are gathered 
together in My name, I will be in the midst of them." 
Hold, therefore, to the Divine service. 

4. Furthermore, I would have you all hold to God's 
mercy. ". .he that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness." 
How merciful Jesus Christ Avas when those men came with 



SECOND SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 169 

stones in their hands, ready to kill the woman who had 
been caught in sin. Jesus said, the first one that has 
not sinned, may stone her ; then He went and wrote in the 
sand; and you remember what tradition says about that 
writing; He began to write in the sand the sins committed 
by the first one who was ready to throw the stone; then 
what the second man had done; and then what the third 
had done, and, looking over His shoulder, they saw He 
was writing their own sins, and they vanished away; He 
looked around; they were not there. Where are the men 
ready to kill this woman? Did Jesus Christ take up a 
stone and kill her? No. He said. Go and sin no more. 
Oh, what mercy! What mercy He had upon her! The 
thief on the cross who had been cursing and abusing Him 
for being one of their own number, hears a voice, "Father, 
forgive them, for they know not what they do ;" in a short 
time he notices he is hanging by the side of the Son of God, 
and cries out, "Kemember me when Thou comest into Thy 
kingdom!'^ Did Jesus say, I will show you? did He say, 1 
^411 have revenge on you? did He say, I will damn you? 
No. "To-day thou shalt be with Me in paradise." Oh, the 
mercy of Christ! The mercy of Christ, my friends, ought 
to move us to have mercy on each other. The mercy of 
Christ, if we are in Him, should move our hands to stretch 
out and take hold of a fallen woman and lift her up; to 
take hold of a fallen man and lift him up. I am here to 
say the fallen woman is just as welcome to my class as the 
best people in the world ; that the fallen boy is the one I 
would love to reach down and lift up; and when we get 
the spirit and the mercy of Christ in us, then we will find 
something good to hold to. 

5. Hold not only to His good mercy but to His 
brotherly love. "Be kindly affectioned one to another with 
brotherly love." When we come to weigh the reasons why 
some people hate each other, what insignificant reasons 
they are. Why does any man hate me? I often ask that 
question. Is it because I do not work hard enough? Is 
that the reason? Is it because I am not praying enough 
for you? Is that the reason? Is it because I am not 
faithful to my God? Is that the reason? I sometimes 



170 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

wonder what it is. What is it? Oh, what a comfort it 
would be if I could just know why it is some people do not 
like me. I am not worrying, my friends, for myself, not 
at all, but I worry for you; I worry for the man that 
hates anybody; I worry for the man that has not got 
brotherly love for his fellowmen. Oh, if some one were 
murdering your own family, even then God would say 
to you, pray for him and bless him ; but when one is try- 
ing with all his might and power to save immortal soui«, 
to save you, what is it? What is it? What is it that you 
are hating? O God, what is it? What is it? Isn't it time 
that we are asking the question, are we in Christ Jesus? 
If we are in Christ Jesus we ought to love whom Jesus 
loves; but Jesus loves us all, and how could we be in 
Christ Jesus and not love everybody? Hold fast to the 
brotherly love of Christ. 

6. If you are in Christ Jesus, you should cling also 
to Divine enthusiasm ". . . not slothful in business; fer- 
vent in spirit; serving the Lord." This word fervent 
means, literally, boiling; in another sense it means burn- 
ing. — Have a burning, a boiling, spirit within you. In 
other words, be filled Avith the spirit of enthusiasm. 
Jesus Christ was enthusiastic. Notice the spirit of Christ 
when He comes to the, "Woe unto you, scribes and 
Pharisees, hypocrites!'' Notice the enthusiasm with which 
He goes into His work in all His sermons. He spoke with 
an enthusiasm that held the people from the time He be- 
gan until He closed. No difference where He went, into 
the desert, or upon the mountain, or on some little vessel 
along the shore, the multitudes crowded upon Him, be- 
cause til ere was a Divine enthusiasm that held them spell- 
bound. W ought to hold fast to Divine enthusiasm. I 
say Divine. There is a fanatical enthusiasm which leads 
people astray ; but Divine enthusiasm seeks out the will of 
God, and having found the will of God, you pray over it, 
and keep on praying until the flame burns in the heart. 
Savonarola of old said, "I must speak, and save Florence, 
or the very marrow in my bones will burn." 

If these things are true that we find in the Word of 
God, it should not only make us diligent, but it should 



SECOND SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 171 

make us burn in soul and heart for the salvation of im- 
mortal souls. If you love your enemy, pray for him. If he 
despitefully uses you, reach out your hand of love. If 
there is a man on earth whom you can bring to Christ 
Jesus with a burning heart, reach out and bring him to 
the Master, and you have done a work that you ought 
to encourage, which shall give you joy, in the midst of 
tribulation ". . . . rejoicing in hope; patient in tribula- 
tion; continuing instant in prayer; distributing to the 
necessity of saints; given to hospitality. Bless them 
which persecute you; bless and curse not. Eejoice with 
them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep." 

The Savior was enthusiastic. In the midst of joy He 
rejoiced; in the midst of tears, with Mary and Martha, 
He wept. In the midst of joy let us rejoice; when we 
come to those who are mourning and in trouble, let us be 
m sympathy with them ; show that our hearts are weeping 
with theirs. Let us show to those deeply afflicted that 
our hearts are with them, and stand by them as Christ 
would stand by them. Kejoicing as Christ would rejoice, 
let us go forth, holding fast to Divine enthusiasm. 

7. Last of all, hold fast to the spirit of liberality. 
"According to the grace that is given us. .he that giveth, 
let him do it with simplicity." When the Lord Jesus gave 
to any one, he did not make them feel under obligations. 
How many times we find when people do a good act, they 
do it in such a way as to publish it to the world ; in such 
a Avay as to make one feel it, and feel it, and feel it, that 
now we have done something for you. Let us learn to be 
in Christ Jesus, and, being in Him, no difference what we 
give to any one, give it with such little ostentation and 
such sympathy that they hardly feel they are getting it, 
and yet gain a great benefit. That is the way we should 
cultivate the spirit of liberality, and hold fast to it. 

"Distributing to the necessity of saints." How many 
Christians there are in the world that need help, to say 
nothing of the people who are living a sinful life, and are 
simply reaping their harvest by having nothing when old 
age comes on; I am speaking of people who are honest, 
upright, saving and working every day, but they meet with 



172 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

misfortune; the time comes when they may not, on ac- 
count of sickness or otherwise, provide for their families. 
The Christian Church ought to recognize that we are one 
family. In a large family we do not find that when 
the daughter is sick, she is allowed to starve; the sisters 
and brothers that are well, work the harder, because 
there is one lying at home with typhoid fever. In 
the Church of God we are all one family ; then how can we 
see a brother sick for a year and simply say, Let him go 
to his lodge, or to his own family, when sometimes his own 
family cannot help? I claim that if we are in Christ we 
will do as Christ would do; we will go to the other mem- 
ber and help. If my right hand is sore and cannot work, 
my left hand must do the work. If we are all members in 
Christ, then let not one member suffer without the others 
helping. 

And this should not only be true with regard to saints^ 
this should be true with regard to our conduct in our owii 
homes — "given to hospitality.'' It does seem to me that 
we are losing just what the x4.postle Paul meant when he 
said, "given to hospitality;" we are losing even what our 
fathers had. I cannot forget one old home where nearly 
every day some one vras sitting down at the table and eat- 
ing with us; I cannot forget, either, how little trouble 
it was for mother to do these things ; she knew just how to 
entertain many people without much trouble. In these 
days we imagine that unless Ave can have a very fine feast 
we cannot have any one to sit down at our table, and we 
are losing hospitality and getting more and more selfish. 
Oh, that the days would return when we could go into 
a house at any time at meal time and sit down and eat a 
bite of bread and drink a cup of water and thank God for 
them, and restore the old hospitality. Jesus did not an- 
nounce beforehand that He was coming to see Mary and 
Martha ; He was welcome any hour ; and this spirit that 
He had for them and they for Him, we should have in -our- 
selves. Jesus was so hospitable that when He saw His dis- 
ciples out on the water, He already had the bread and fish 
prepared for them when they came to the shore. When- 
ever He had a bite He divided it among His disciples. 



SECOND SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 173 

When a great number of His disciples were very hungry, 
and He had only a few loaves and fishes, He did not satisfy 
His own hunger first, but blessed the food, handed it to 
His disciples and told them to carry it out to the people, 
and He fed them all, and gathered up the crumbs, and we 
do not know that He even took a bite. How hospitable 
Jesus Avas! If we are in Christ Jesus we ought to have 
that hospitality in our own homes. Oh, let us cultivate 
liberality and love for the poor, wherever we can do them 
good. 

I have in mind this morning a certain rich man who 
was always praying for the poor, praying that God might 
by all means keep them from freezing in the winter and 
from starving. This rich man had his own granaries full 
of grain, and when a poor man would come to him and 
ask for a little of this or of that, he would always answer, 
^^I have just provided enough for myself," and send him 
away, and yet he kept on praying, "O God, feed the poor; 
feed the poor." This man was not in Christ to the same 
extent that his little son was. One morning, when his 
father was praying, and praying, and praying for the poor, 
so earnestly, after he had said Amen, the little boy said, 
^Tather, I do wish I owned all the barns you do." "Why, 
my son?" "Oh, if I did, I would just answer your 
prayers." Amen. 

PRAYER. 

O God, our heavenly Father, we thank Thee that Thou hast given 
us this blessed Word, which is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto 
our patTi. We thank Thee that we are permitted to live in Christ Jesus, 
and, living in Him, that we can walk in His footsteps, and that we can 
be lights in the world. We thank Thee that the great Light of the 
world has said to His disciples,. "Ye are the light of the world," and 
now we pray Thee, make every Christian in this house tonight a real 
light that shall shine with abhorring that which is evil, and cleaving to 
that which is good. O Father in heaven, if there be any jealousy, 
hypocrisy, hatred, slothfulness, cursing, pride, any sin of any kind in 
our hearts, help us tonight to abhor that evil ; on the other hand, help 
us to cling to Jesus Christ, cling to His Word and the means of grace, 
to cling to the Divine service, to cleave to God's mercy, to hold to His 
brotherl}^ love, to cling with Divine enthusiasm, and to be filled with 
the spirit of liberality; and thus^ heavenly Father, help us to be instant 
in prayer, constantly calling upon Thee, and with our hands doing what 



174 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

we can for Thy glory and for the welfare of humanity. Give Thy 
blessing to this Targe congregation tonight, and as we go out of the 
doors of this church, may we all, if we have not already, enter the doors 
of eternal life. Jesus, do Thou receive us into Thine heart, and walk 
with us through life, protect us, with Thy righteousness cover our sins, 
and lead us home to the Father as Thy beloved children. Hear this, 
our prayer, for the sake of the Christ who taught us to pray: 

Our Father who art in heaven; Hallowed be Thy name; Thy 
kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven; Give 
us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation; 
But deliver us from evil; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



THIRD SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 

The Conflict of the Christian in Christ. 

Rom. 12:16-21. 

BE not wise in your own conceits. Recompense to no man evil 
for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it 
be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all 
men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto 
wrath : for it is written, Vengeance is mine ; I will repay, saith the 
Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him ; if he thirst, give 
him drink : for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. 
Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Dearly Beloved: — 

This text, as you will perceive, is only a continua- 
tion of the texts of the last two Sundays, found in the 
twelfth chapter of Komans. Last Sunday evening we 
heard how the Christian in Christ must abhor evil and 
cleave to that which is good. The Christian in Christ 
must not only abhor the evil and cleave to the good, but 
he must enter the conflict that takes place between good 
and evil. It is impossible for good and evil to dwell 
together, just as much as it is for darkness and light to 
remain in the same room; the one must expel the other, 
and consequently Christianity in its truth and purity is 
a battle. The apostle Paul said, "I have fought a good 
fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.'' 
We sang just a few moments ago that beautiful hymn : 

"Am I a soldier of the Cross, 
A follower of the Lamb; 
And shall I fear to own His cause, 
Or blush to speak His name?" 
175 



176 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

And now that you have sung that first stanza, I 
wonder what your answer is to the question, i^re you a 
soldier of the Cross, or are you a soldier of the devil? Are 
you a follower of the Lamb, or a follower of Satan? Are 
you on the narrow way, battling for righteousness toward 
heaven, or are you on the broad way that leads to de- 
struction? There is no question about what a Christian's 
attitude ought to be if he is in Christ. 

''Sure I must fight if I would reign : 

Increase my courage, Lord; 
I'll bear the toil, endure the pain, 
Supported by Thy Word." 

I call your attention this morning to 

THE CONFLICT OF THE CHRISTIAN IN CHRIST. 

The conflict is mentioned in the last verse of our 
text when it is said, "Be not overcome of evil, but over- 
come evil with good.'' 

I. The Christian in Christ must not let evil over- 
come him, for this may be done according to the words 
of our text, in three different ways: By thinking he is 
too smart to learn anything; by seeking revenge, and by 
selling truth for peace. 

1. "Be not wise in your own conceits." The human 
mind is prone to think itself very wise, and one of the 
reasons so many people think they are wise is because 
their minds are so poorly developed that they fail to see 
the many things concerning which they know nothing. 
When you were small, you imagined that your house was 
a very large house; you imagined that the hills around 
your home were very large hills, but when you began to 
travel around in the world, you saw the Rpcky Mount- 
ains, and then you came home and were surprised to find 
what little banks those were that you formerly thought 
were such great hills; and when you have gone into the 
larger buildings of the world, you were surprised to find 
how little the rooms were where you were born. When 1 
stood in my old home the other day and looked up at the 



THIRD SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 177 

ceiling, I could not imagine that was the same house I 
used to live in; my head nearly touched the plastering, 
and we used to think that was a big house. So it is with 
regard to the human mind; when one imagines he know& 
it all, and there is nothing for him to learn any more, 
he is filled with his own conceit, and instead of permitting 
evil to be overcome, evil has overcome him. The one 
thing we should all learn is to know ourselves. The 
old Greek motto, "Know Thyself,'^ was written over the 
door, that the children might read it every day, and 
nothing has ever been able to make us know ourselves 
as the revelation of God, the Word w^hich we hear 
from day to day out of the old Book. Let me then advise 
you in this evening hour, not to get, as the apostle Paul 
calls it, "heady;'' do not get such a big head on your 
shoulders that you imagine what you do not know is not 
worth knowing, and that for you it is impossible to learn 
anything more. Oh, Avhat a fool the man is in the home 
when he thinks the wife knows nothing, and that even 
the children never knoAV anything. What a fool the 
woman is in the home when she imagines that she knows; 
it all, and the husband and father knows nothing at alL 
What a fool a servant is in the home when he imagines he 
knows more than his master or mistress ; and what a fool 
a young man or woman is when they think they know 
so much more than their parents. Let us beware that we 
are not overcome of evil, and I know of no way that one 
can be overcome of evil sooner ' than simply to get con- 
ceity, and think, for me there is nothing to learn ; T know 
it all, and Avhen I die wisdom will die with me. This 
life is too short and our human minds are too small ever 
to be throughly convinced that we are right on everything. 
Even as ministers of the Gospel we sometimes make the 
mistake to think we are absolutely sure that we are right 
and cannot be mistaken. There are men who will hold 
their hands up to heaven and say, I know that Jesus 
Christ Avas immersed, and they do not know anything 
about it; there are men who will hold their hands up 
toward heaven and say, I know my church is absolutely 

12 



178 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

right in all things, and the rest are wrong where they 
differ with us. While I believe that, I want to tell you 
that I would be a conceited fool if I held my hand up to 
heaven and said, it is absolutely impossible that we might 
be in error on some things. If you want evil to overcome 
you, then simply get that big head that thinks nothing 
can go into it any more, and you have won one victory, you 
have got a head that nothing will go into any more ; there 
is no room for it. 

2. We must not let evil overcome us by seeking re- 
venge. "Recompense to no man evil for evil. . . . Dearly 
beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto 
wrath, for it is written, Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, 
saith the Lord.'' That spirit of revenge is just as natural 
as it is to be born a sinner. The little child is hardly 
old enough to sit on its mother's lap before it is ready to 
slap her in the face. The little boy or the little girl does 
not need to be old until they watch for a chance to throw 
stones at the one that threw at them. If there is anything 
that is heathenish, anything positively sinful, anything 
that makes one to be overcome instead of overcoming, it is 
that spirit of revenge that dwells in the heart of the 
natural man. We may think that if we can just find 
an opportunity to say a hard, cutting thing concerning 
the one that said a hard cutting thing about us, or to 
strike the one that struck us, that we have shown our- 
selves to be manly, or that we have won a glorious vic- 
tory, but the real truth is, when any man on earth does 
a mean act toward me, if he can get me to do just as mean 
an act toward him, I am conquered instead of conquer- 
ing; just in that moment I cease to be a true man. A 
man does not need to be much of a man to strike back 
at the one that struck him. I think one of the homeliest 
animals that ever lived is noted for being one of the worst 
kickers, and about every time you hit him, he strikes back ; 
and you can be just that kind of an animal by seeking re- 
venge, and instead of overcoming evil, evil has overcome 
you. How little one becomes when he is simply watch- 
ing for an opportunity to say something hateful, and do 
some dastardly deed toward the man that has harmed 



THIRD SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 179 

him. Not many years ago in heathen Africa, a mission- 
ary witnessed this scene. Two neighbors were at variance 
with each other; both of them too cowardly to meet face 
to face ; but one knew that the little daughter of his enemy 
was going along the way to school, and, hiding along the 
pathway, when the little girl came along, he caught her, 
held her arms down on a block, took his axe and cut her 
hands off; sent her home, bleeding, and he cried out to 
his neighbor, "Now I am avenged!" Oh, horrible pic- 
ture! and yet a true picture of every one who is trying to 
recompense evil for evil, of one who is not willing to let 
vengeance be in the hands of God. My dear friends, there 
is One who has all things in His power; there is One who 
is going to bring about a Judgment Day that will settle 
all wrongs. If you wrong me, God knows it, and if 1 
wrong you, God knows it, and there is a day coming when 
God will make all things right. There is no use in my 
worrying about anything that you have done to wrong me ; 
I am willing to leave that in the hands of my great and 
loving Master. When the little child has told its father 
what the neighbor's child did, that father, if he is a 
father, will see that justice is done, and nothing nlore,. 
and so the apostle Paul says, "Dearly beloved, avenge 
not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath; for it 
is written, Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, saith the 
Lord.'' 

3. The conflict of the Christian in Christ would 
furthermore lead him not to sacrifice truth for peace. 
"If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably 
with all men." This epistle has often been called the 
epistle of peace. If there was any one thing the apostle 
Paul loved, being a Christian in Christ, it was peace, and 
yet he knew there were some people in this world with 
whom it is simply impossible to be at peace ; there are some 
people who cannot bear peace; they do not love it, and they 
absolutely will not have it. AVith some people we are not 
commanded to always have peace. In other words, it is 
said here, "If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live 
peaceably with all men." It is my duty as a Christian 
in Christ to be at peace with all men, but it is not my 



180 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

duty as a Christian in Christ to make every man be at 
peace with me. If there are soDie people who do not want 
peace, I cannot help it. When we look at the men of 
old, who were real Christians, we find that they never 
had peace with everybody. Look at the old prophets. 
Moses was a man of God, and yet when he went down 
into Egypt to deliver the children of Israel, Pharaoh re- 
belled against him. God Almighty showed which one was 
in the right; one plague after the other came, demonstrat- 
ing that Moses was right and Pharaoh Avrong. When the 
locusts came and ate every vine and every green thing, 
until it was such a curse as he had never felt before, 
Pharaoh came to Moses and said, "I have sinned. I pray 
of thee ask God to take this great plague away." Did 
Moses say, I will not do it? Did Moses glory in the fact 
that now he had revenge on Pharaoh? No. He prayed 
God to let a strong wind come to take the locusts away 
from his enemy. He tried to be at peace, but could not. 
This is not only true of Moses, it is true of Elijah. Elijah 
was a man of God such as there were few in the Old Tes- 
tament times. There was a great king who was bound to 
have peace, on a wrong basis. There were eight hundred 
and fifty false preachers on that day that were bound to 
have peace, on a false basis. Elijah said, I am glad to 
have peace with you, but I want peace on the basis of 
right; I am not going to sell truth for peace, if all the 
world is against me; and he stood on Mt. Carmel that 
day, a man of God, all alone, as far as human eyes could 
see, but he stood there as a man of God who would not 
sacrifice truth for all the world, even if it cost his life. 
He wanted to demonstrate on that mountain that Jehovah 
is the true and living God, and not Baal. Elijah could 
have no peace with Jezebel; he could have no peace with 
Ahab; he could have no peace with the ungodly worship- 
pers of idols. And thus we may go on down through 
history. Look at Jesus Christ, Himself. He was the 
Prince of Peace, and yet He Himself could not have peace 
with all people. I call attention to Matt. 10:35: "For 
I am come to set a man at variance against his father, 
and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter- 



THIRD SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 181 

in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes shall 
be they of his own household." A Christian in a heathen 
family means war in that family. I call attention again 
to Luke 14 :26 where the Savior shows the difference be- 
tween human love and our love to our Savior : "If any 
man come to Me, and hate not his father, and mother, 
and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, 
and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple." I 
wonder how many of us would stand the test on the basis 
of that remark of Christ. How many of us would follow 
Christ even if father says no, even if mother says no, even 
if brothers and sisters say no. How many of us love 
Christ so much that our great love to our parents com- 
pared with our love to Christ, is as hatred? That is 
Avhat Jesus demands of His disciples. So you see that 
even Christ Himself could not be at peace with all people. 
There was Peter, who drew the sword and cut off the 
ear of Malchus. Did the Lord Jesus Christ go on and 
say, that is right; I am glad of it? No. He took the ear 
and held it to his head, and healed it, to show us how to 
treat our enemies. Did Jesus Christ have peace with the 
Pharisees, and with the Sanhedrin? No. He could not 
afford to sell truth and have it sacrificed on account of 
principle. It was principle that made Jesus Christ die 
on Calvary. Look at Luther. Dr. Luther might have had 
peace with John Calvin, and with Zwingli, and with all 
the reformers; they held out their hands and said. Dr. 
Luther, we are willing to admit that you are the hero of 
the Keformation, but there are one or two points upon 
which we disagree, and now we ask of you to extend the 
hand and we will call it all right; it is only a difference of 
opinion. Dr. Luther said, I cannot afford to sell truth 
for peace. I cannot afford to sacrifice the truth in 
this great work of the Reformation. The real truth of it 
is, if you are right, then we have no Lord's Supper, and 
if I am right, then you have none; consequently the truth 
must stand at my cost ; I will stand alone rather than sell 
the truth. And so we need men in the present day that 
will not let themselves be overcome of evil. It becomes 



182 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

our duty to know the teachings of God's Word and as 
we understand them, to stand b}^ them at any cost. 

II. In the conflict of the Christian in Christ, he 
must not only not let evil overcome him, but he must 
overcome evil with good. 

1. First of all, by living a strictly honest life. "Pro- 
vide things honest in the sight of all men." How often 
we must hear it said in the best circles, there are church 
members who do not pay their grocery bills; that there 
are church members who go home drunk; that there are 
church members that will curse and swear like heathen; 
that there are Sunday School teachers that are living 
just as worldly as the world itself ; that there are preach- 
ers of the Gospel that are not living as they preach. My 
dear friends, there is nothing that so hurts the church of 
God as inconsistent Christian membership. As I said 
last Sunday evening, how can you be in Christ and live 
a life like a child of the devil? He that is baptized into 
Christ puts on Christ. If I am a Christian in Christ, my 
conflict must be the conflict of Christ Himself. If I were 
to say that man staggering up street, drunk, is Jesus 
Christ, who would believe me? No man on earth would 
believe me. If I were to say that Jesus Christ does not 
pay His grocery bills, who would believe me? If I were 
to say that man standing among his fellow laboring men 
cursing and swearing, is Jesus Christ, who would be- 
lieve me? Not one. The Christian in Christ dare not 
do what would put his Savior to shame. We have a word 
here translated honest that means good, upright, living 
such a life that no man can question as to what he really 
is. I make a plea this morning for a conflict in Christ, 
to overcome evil, and to overcome it by a life that must 
substantially ask the question, what would Jesus do to- 
day and what can I do for Him? Give me five hundred 
members in a church who are living as Christ wants them 
to live, and I will show you a power that is bound to 
make the whole city quake. Do you want to know why 
we are so weak in all our different churches? It is be- 
cause the world can see one inconsistent member quicker 
than a hundred consistent ones. One man in a church 



THIRD SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 183 

complaining, makes more fuss than a hundred who keep 
quiet. One man cursing and swearing makes more of an 
impression against the church than five hundred prayers 
for it. I would, therefore, make a plea this morning for 
every professed Christian to remember that he has a con- 
flict, a conflict against the devil, a conflict against his 
own flesh, a conflict with the world, and this conflict 
must be carried on in such a way that whatever else may 
be said against a man, it cannot be said he is dishonest; 
it cannot be said he is not trying to live a righteous life. 
Oh, dear friends, when we have tried our best, I know we 
will all blunder, I know we will all make mistakes, but 
there is one thing, God helping me, I do not want said 
after I am dead, and that is that I did not try to live a 
righteous life. I do not want it said when this tongue is 
silent that he did not even try to live as a Christian 
should live in Christ, and I hope that may be said of 
none of us. 

2. So we must overcome evil with good by carrying 
the very cross of peace with us. "If it be possible, as 
much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men." I call 
your attention especially to that little phrase, "as much 
as lieth in you." Do not go home and say our pastor said 
we cannot live at peace with some of our neighbors, there- 
fore, we are not going to speak to them; therefore, we 
are going to live right on, like we did. I want to ask you 
this question, if you have any foe in the world today, 
have you done all that you could to have peace? I want 
it distinctly understood that God's Word does not toler- 
ate hatred in the heart of the Christian. God's Word 
does demand of me that I do all in my power to have peace 
with all my foes and with all my fellowmen. On the 3rd 
of last December morning it was just one hundred and 
five years that a great battle took place between the Aus- 
trians and the French. That morning the parents sent 
their little children to school to the great Klausner; that 
morning little did the parents dream that before school 
was out the path of those children would be running red 
with the blood of two armies. When the cannon began to 
roar and the swords bes^an to flash, the teacher and the 



184 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

children gathered in the school house and saw what was 
going on. The question in that teacher's mind was how 
to take those children home, how to take them over that 
battlefield between the school house and their homes. 
He went to the chapel and took down a large wooden 
cross, placed the little children two b}^ two in a line, and 
at the head of them he walked across tlie center of that 
battlefield. When they saw that great teacher, with the 
little ones, with the cross of Christ uplifted, the cannons 
stopped their roaring and the swords were sheathed, and 
he took safely home every little child. It w^as the cross of 
Christ that stayed the power of the cannons and guns 
between the French and the Ausfrians, and there you have 
a picture of the cross of peace. If we want peace with 
all men, as much as lieth in us, let us pray God to take 
revenge out of our hearts, and take up the cross of Christ, 
and live so close to Jesus that wherever we go we hold 
up that cross. I want to tell you there is nothing in all 
the world that will produce harmony and peace like the 
cross of Christ. Up until the time that cross was planted 
on Calvary, men had the courage to walk up and slap 
Jesus in the face; they had the courage to scourge His 
back; they had the courage to spit in His face, but when 
once He was nailed on that cross, bearing the sins of the 
world, the great commander at the head of a hundred 
men, stood there and smote upon his breast and said, 
Surely this is the Son of God. From that time on no hand 
touched Jesus to murder Him; no hand touched Him to 
slap Him, and never will. The cross of Christ has sub- 
dued more enemies than any power there ever was or ever 
will be. 

3. This leads me to say that in the confiict of the 
Christian in Christ, he must overcome evil with good by 
conquering his enemy with kindnests. ^'Therefore if thine 
enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink, for 
in so doing thou slialt heap coals of fire on his head." 
The Lord Jesus taught in the sermon on the mount that 
we should pray for our enemies, bless them that curse us 
and pray for them which despitefully use us. It is not an 
easy matter to carry that out practically. When a man 



THIRD SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 185 

comes up to me and strikes me in the face, the first thing 
I will think of is to strike back. It takes a wonderful 
training for a man to pray for the one who strikes 
him in the face, but I want it distinctly understood that 
God does give Christians the power to pray for their 
enemies ; He does give them power to treat them well ; and 
when you do that, you are heaping coals of fire on their 
heads. Of course there are some irons so hot that you 
cannot make them any hotter by heaping coals over them, 
and there are some fools so full of hell that even coals 
of fire on their heads are not felt. There are some people 
you cannot even conquer with kindness, but I want to 
say right here that the greatest power on earth to con- 
quer an enemy is simply to treat him well. Look at Jos- 
eph. His jealous brothers took him, and sold him; some 
were even ready to murder him; but when they ran out 
of corn and came back to Egypt, they were very glad to 
be fed by their brother whom they had sold, and when 
the great conflict was over, and old father Jacob was dead, 
those eleven brothers said, now we have got to go and fix 
this thing up or he will take our lives; father is dead; 
and there is no telling what he may do. So they sent a 
messenger ahead to tell him that father said before he 
died that he should forgwe them for having sold him. 
Then w^hen they saw the countenance of Joseph, they 
came themselves and fell down before him, fulfilling the 
dream of the sheaves that should bow before him, and 
Joseph in all* his kindness said, '^Ye meant it unto evil, 
but God meant it unto good," and he heaped coals of 
fire upon the heads of his brothers. This was not only 
done by Joseph, it was done by Stephen. You remember 
how they stoned that good man to death. Oh, the his- 
tory of the world, what a shame it is! Good Stephen, 
the man looking out for the poor; the man who hunted 
up those in trouble and helped them; the sinful world 
could not bear it, and so they picked up stones and began 
to hurl them at good Stephen, until he fell down, and, 
like his Master, prayed, "Father, lay this sin not to their 
charge;" he prayed for his enemies and he heaped coals 
of fire on their heads. Look at Jesus Christ Himself, on 



186 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

the cross, praying, "Father, forgive them, for they know 
not what they do.'' There was another man hanging on 
the cross by His side that just then felt a coal burning 
on the top of his head, and it burned down into his con- 
science, and burned down into his heart, and made him 
cry out, "Kemember me when Thou comest into Thy 
kingdom! O my Savior, Thou hast burned my heart with 
Thy kindness! Save me!" and Jesus saved him — heaped 
coals of fire upon his head. 

During the beginning of the great Christian era there 
was one heathen named Milas, and his wife, who not 
only were opposed to the Christian Church, but hired 
themselves out as agents to hunt, up Christians that they 
might be sacrificed in the arena and killed on account of 
their faith. These two people had gathered in more Chris- 
tians to be eaten by the lions and to be slaughtered, than 
any heathen of that day. One time this heathen got very 
sick, and ran out of provisions; the Christians heard 
about it, and went to his little house, walked in and pre- 
sented him with the things necessary for this life, and told 
him how they loved him. He simply moaned and groaned 
when he saw the faces of those Christians whom he had 
sought that they might be eaten by the lions. The wife 
began to moan and groan, and cried "Ye gods, I see the 
faces of those whom we have tried to bear to the lions to 
be slaughtered! How came they here, and how can they 
treat us so kindly?'' The Christians gave them their gifts, 
had a prayer, and started home. The old heathen moaned 
and groaned; he felt the power of the fiery coals, but his 
time was short and he passed into eternity. After he was 
buried the Christians came back and said to the widow, 
"We will take care of you, and of your children; we will 
love you though you have persecuted us;" then she fell 
doAvn on her face and cried, "O my God, how can I stand 
it, and how can I give thanks to these people, and what 
shall I do?" "Then one of the leaders lifted her up and 
said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt 
be saved, and thy house," and she was saved, and her 
whole house was saved, but she never could forget the 
power of the burning coals upon her head. 



THIRD SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 187 

You will remember I told you a few moments ago 
about that heathen in Africa who cut off the hands of the 
little girl, and said "Now I am avenged!'' There is another 
side to that picture, I want to give you now. Time passed 
on and that man got very poor, and as a beggar went 
from house to house. The little girl's life was spared and 
she grew to womanhood. One day a beggar came to her 
home and asked for something to eat. Holding her arms 
under her apron, she invited him to the table, asked him 
to sit down, and ordered placed before him a good warm 
meal, that he might eat. After he had eaten, and stood 
up, and said, ''I haven't had such a good meal for a long 
time, and I thank you for A^our kindness," she held her 
mutilated arms up to his face and said, "Now I am 
avenged' Now I am avenged! I am the little girl whose 
hands you cut off because you hated my father, but I 
love you, and pray you to give your heart to God and be 
saved,'' and there was a burning coal entered that man's 
conscience and soul that won him to the little girl's 
Savior. 

We are told by the German Missionary Society in 
Southern Africa that there was a young negro slave there 
one time, who became so interested in God's Word that 
every evening he begged of his master that he might go 
and hear these missionaries. The master, himself a hea- 
then, said "No, I want you to remain here; you are my 
slave and you dare not go," but the little boy had already 
learned that we must obey God rather than man, and when 
his day's work was done he started off, went to the 
missionary and heard the glorious news of Christ and Him 
crucified. The master, when the boy came home, said 
"I will put an end to this thing of going to those mission- 
aries." He had him tied to a post, gave to one of the 
other servants a lash and said, "Now lash him tw^enty- 
five times, as hard as you can strike, across his bared 
back." The lash cut the wounds across his back, and after 
the twenty-fifth lash Avas given, the master said, "Now, 
I want to ask you, what can Jesus do for you?" The little 
slave looked up into his master's face and said, "He can 
help me to bear these burdens." "Give him twenty-five 



188 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

more!" and the lashes cut across the bleeding furrows 
twenty-five times more. "Now/' said the master, "what 
can Jesus do for you?" "He can help me to reach a 
home where there is no sorrow and no pain." "Give him 
tAventy-five more!" One after the other the twenty-five 
lashes cut across his bleeding back until he slowly sank 
down and when the last lash w^as given he fell exhausted 
and dying upon the ground; the master, with revenge in 
his heart, walked up to him and said, "Now, what can 
Jesus do for you?" The little slave looked up and said 
distinctly and clearly with his dying voice, "My Savior 
can still help me to pray for my master!" Amen. 

PRAYER. 

O God, our heavenly Father, we thank Thee for the message of 
the morning, and we pray Thee, O' God, that Thou wilt help us to live 
in Christ and to carry on the conflict in Him with Satan and the world 
and our own fleshly desires. O Father in heaven, do Thou help us to 
realize more and more the difference between simply religion and true 
Christianity. Help us to understand the difference between having our 
names on the church record and on the Book of Life. Help us to 
understand the difference between being stumbling blocks in the way of 
others, and being true servants of God. O Father in heaven, if Thy 
servant by thought, or by word, or by deed, has ever wronged any one 
on earth, he prays' Thee now for forgiveness ; and O God, he prays 
Thee in this hour to give us all the spirit of forgiveness and of 
kindness, and of love unfeigned, for such a love as Jesus Christ would 
have for His enemies. O God, do Thou help that the message of the 
morning will prepare us the better for the lives that we have to live in 
this sinful world, and give us a glorious victory in Jesus Christ. All 
these favors we ask in the name of the blessed Master, who taught 
us to pray : 

Our Father who art in heaven ; Hallowed be Thy name ; Thy 
kingdom come ; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven ; Give 
us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us ; And lead us not into temptation ; 
But deliver us from evil; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY, 
A Double Debt. 

EOM. 13:8-10. 

OWE no man anything, but to love one another : for he that loveth 
another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not com- 
mit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou 
shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any 
other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely,. 
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his 
neighbor : therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Th}^ Word is truth. Amen. 



Dear Christian Friends: 

Our debt to God is so great that we never can pay it^ 
In Matt. 18:23-35 we read of that great king who de- 
manded an account to be given by his steward, and we re- 
member that the steward owed him ten thousand talents, 
and, being unable to x)ay the vast amount, the great king^ 
simply forgave the debt; and afterwards we find that this 
same steward went out and choked his fellow servant be- 
cause he owed him a little sum of money, and threw him 
into prison; then you will remember his own friends re- 
ported him to the king who had forgiven him, and he him- 
self had to be thrown into prison until he could pay the 
last dollar — a thing he could never do. In other words, in 
that parable we have the forgiving spirit of our Lord and 
Master, who is willing to forgive us all our sins, but at 
the same time puts us under the obligation to our fellow 
men, showing us also that it is impossible that we should 
ever be able to pay the debt we owe Him. Do not imagine 
you can ever pay the debt that you owe your God. Even 

189 



190 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

though He forgives jour sins, you are still under obliga- 
tions to Him, and you are still under obligations to your 
fellowmen. That debt which Jesus Christ paid for us 
was an enormous debt. It is said that one soul is worth 
more than all the world; every soul lost is more than a 
world lost. Just think of the value of the souls that are 
in this church this morning! Where is the king on earth 
that can pay the price for your souls and mine? Jesus 
Christ on Calvary not only paid that debt for your soul 
and mine, but paid the debt of all the souls that ever were 
or ever shall be. Ye are bought with a price, says the 
apostle, and no man has ever yet been able to tell us what 
that price is. It is true, we are told that Christ purchased 
us with His blood, but where is the living person on earth 
that knows the value of the blood of the Son of God? 
Having paid such an enormous debt for us, as I said a 
moment ago, we are put under obligations to our God and 
to our fellowmen. The text of the evening is the second 
table of the law and not the first, showing us especially 
that we have a double debt. I call your attention briefly 
then this evening to the theme : 

A DOUBLE DEBT. 

I. Debts you must not owe. 
II. Debts you must let grow. 

There are two kinds of debts : There are some debts 
wTiich we must not owe as Christians; and then there are 
other debts which, as Christians, we ought to let grow. 
Both of these debts are hinted at in the first verse of 
our text : "Owe no man anything but to love one another." 
In these first few words, "Owe no man anything," we have 
the principle laid down, debts you must not owe. 

I. There are a great many debts in this world we 
should not owe, but let me call your attention to seven 
debts that we must not owe, and to seven which we should 
let grow. The seven debts which we ought not to owe, are : 

1. The one that is larger than your deed. Every 
man is supposed in this world to own his own home, to 
have a little possession. There is no excuse under heaven 



FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 191 

for any man being so poor that he cannot own a foot of 
ground. At the rate of fifty dollars per acre, one stogie 
worth a cent will buy eight square feet of ground. Is there 
any man on earth so poor that he can never spend one cent? 
Every man who smokes a ^Ye cent cigar smokes up forty 
square feet of good ground, four and a half thousand miles 
deep. Every man that drinks ten cents' worth of whiskej 
a day for fifty years drinks up over $11,660.00 of a bank 
account. When the Lord said in His Word, Thou shalt not 
covet thy neighbor's house. He took it for granted the 
neighbor was to own a house, and, as I have said before, 
I have no patience with that kind of poverty that runs 
around all through life and says, I never could own a foot 
of ground. Poor as I am, if you will come to me I will 
give you enough to buy forty square feet of ground before 
tomorrow evening. The great trouble Avith some people is^ 
that they do not knoAV how to make money grow ; they do 
not know that God ever intended for them that they should 
have a home of their own, and when they do get a home of 
their own, they are not careful to keep the debt smaller 
than the warranty deed. There is nothing wrong in young 
people going into debt, but let us be careful that we under- 
stand exactly what a debt is. If I buy your home for four 
tlionsand dollars and pay down one thousand, with the 
uuderstanding that I keep the interest paid up, and pay 
you five hundred dollars a year until that home is paid 
for, as soon as I make my first payment, I do not owe you 
one cent until the next interest is due. A debt is not that 
A\hich I am obligated to pay at some future time, but a 
debt is what I owe you or my God to-day, and just as long 
as you keep your obligations to your fellowmen smaller 
than your deed, you can pay your debt, and just as soon as 
you make your debt larger than your deed, you are owing 
n debt that you cannot pay, and you are dishonest before 
the world. And so my first advice to you, on the basis of 
my text this evening is, owe no man a larger debt than 
your security. 

2. In the second place I would say, owe no man any- 
thing down at the court house. This text is taken out of 
that same chapter where the Apostle Paul exhorts the 



192 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

Komans to be subject to the higher powers, telling them 
to pay tribute unto whom tribute is due, and custom to 
whom custom is due. Some of the Eomans began to think 
that when they became Christians they need not be subject 
to Eome or to the government any more. The Apostle 
Paul wanted them to understand that a good citizen is a 
man who is obedient to the laws of his country; that a 
good citizen will pay his taxes, as well as his contribution 
for the extension of God's kingdom. God said, "Render to 
Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things 
that are God's." I say if a man is a true child of God he 
will no more think of trying to hold money without paying 
taxes, or trying to escape his obligations to the govern- 
ment, than he would try to escape a duty toward his God, 
for the government is of God. Pray tell me, how shall 
OUT bridges be built and how shall our roads be improved, 
.and how shall our schools be supported, if we are not 
loyal citizens and pay every dollar of taxes we owe? 

3. Not only should we pay all the debts we owe at 
the court house, we slioud pay all we owe down at the 
store. How many people there are who will walk into a 
store and buy just as long as they are trusted, thinking 
they will pay at some future time, and it is that very 
principle that has made many people dishonest. It would 
be a great accommodation to the poor as well as to the rich 
if no merchant would sell a single yard of dry goods unless 
the cash is laid on the counter. It is no accommodation to 
me to sell my family goods that are not paid for until they 
are worn out, and if I cannot pay for one dress or one 
suit of clothing this year, how can I pay for two suits next 
year? If I cannot pay for the table upon which we eat, 
had we not better get a few boards and lay them across a 
barrel, and eat our meals from that, asking God's blessing 
upon a table that is paid for, instead of a debt that we 
cannot pay? In other words, the most of people are poor 
and will always remain poor because they are not afraid 
to make debts in the stores, and store debts are a detriment 
to all people. 

4. What I say with regard to store debts in general, 
I would especially say with regard to those two places 



FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 193 

which are frequented the most by all people in order to 
live, — I mean the meat shop and the grocery store. We 
think we must have good steak to eat ; we must have good 
meat on the table. Nevertheless, this has been discovered 
by a great many people, that we are not necessarily carniv- 
orous animals, that we need not have these things if we 
cannot pay for them. It is far better to be honest with a 
dry crust of bread on the table than to run bills which 
we are not certain we can pay in the future. And this is 
especially true of the grocery store. Think of the men 
who are starting in the grocery business, and breaking up, 
for no other reason than because they have fed family 
after family and never received their pay, and if there is 
one bill that is hard to pay, it is an old account. 

5. I go further and say we should not owe anything 
to the church. The church of God, as well as every family, 
needs money. It took money in the very beginning of the 
world, to build the first altar; it took money to get the 
first skin of the animals with which God could clothe the 
people. I do not say it took gold or silver, but it took 
the value of an animal, and it took labor, and the labor 
and the value of the thing salable is money. It takes 
money to build churches ; it takes money to make fires to 
keep you warm when you are in church ; it takes money to 
buy hymn books; it takes money to have a man live in 
your midst who is to give his entire service to the ex- 
tension of God's kingdom. It takes no long exhortation to 
show intelligent people that if it takes money for a little 
family of three or five, it certainly takes more money for 
a great family of fifteen hundred or two thousand. The 
question arises, do we pay our debts to the church as we 
should? God not only said, Render to Caesar the things 
that are Caesar's, but to God the things that are God's. 
In our own local church we are approaching the beginning 
of a new financial church year, beginning on the first of 
April, and we know that in the coming year it will require 
$1,661.00 for this congregation to pay its obligation to the 
different benevolences of our church, or an average of 
fl.33 per communicant. It not only takes money for 

13 



194 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

benevolence at large, but it takes money for our own cur- 
rent expenses. The question arises, what are we doing? 
A few iDeople are doing more than they should, some are 
hardly doing Avhat they should, and some are doing noth- 
ing. As I said a moment ago with regard to the home, so I 
say with regard to the church. I do not believe there is a 
Christian under God's heaven that ever felt so poor that he 
or she felt satisfied not to give one cent for the extension 
of God's kingdom. I know the Avorld is full of poverty, 
and I believe that I understand that as well as the average 
man does, but, on the other hand, I do know that the 
poorest Christians I have ever met have been those that 
said, I cannot be satisfied unless I do something for my 
Savior who laid down His life for me. I know of one very 
poor woman, who was so poor that she could not rent a 
room on the lower floor, nor on the second, nor on the 
third, but had her little room up in the attic, and made her 
living wih her needle, not only supi^orting herself but be- 
cause she loved her Savior, sent six young men out into 
the mission field, and supported them, so that she might, 
through them, preach the Gospel with the end of a needle. 
Why did she do this? Because some one asked her? 
No. Bcause she loved her Savior; because she felt that 
if He Avere willing to die on Calvary for her, she was 
willing to live in an attic and send at least six messengers 
out into the world to preach the Gospel of Christ. That 
woman Avas Sarah Hosmer. Let me urge upon you all, 
then, not to have church debts. 

6. I am glad that people are getting their eyes 
opened on fraternal insurance. About 1700 have gone 
bankrupt. Young men join a lodge for cheap insurance 
and when they are old their money and protection are 
gone. If you want insurance at all, buy any old line in- 
surance and pay for it. 

7. I even go a step further, and tliis may surprise 
some of you, I say if you owe a debt at the saloon, go and 
pay it. About three years ago I Avas appointed adminis- 
trator of a large estate. One of the bills that came in was 
1184.00 of a saloon bill; the heirs said to the adminis- 
trator, "You must not pay that, it is a saloon bill." The 



FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 195 

administrator said, "Did the man drink the beer and the 
whisky?'' "Yes/' "Then in the name of common sense 
why not pay for it?" If the law were to say that you could 
buy a horse and not pay for it, would you keep the horse 
and not pay the bill? Where did God ever say that you 
can go into a saloon and buy a hundred dollars worth of 
whisky and beer and then beat the man out of that 
money? Many people seem to think yet that if the law 
says we may sin, Ave may go and sin and it is all right. 
Pay what you owe. Owe no man anything, saloon-keeper 
or no saloon-keeper ; grocery keeper or no grocery keeper ; 
owe no man anything, is the command that comes from 
God to every one of us. I know it is a hard bill to pay. 
Just during the past week I discovered one professed 
Christian in MansfieJd who never walked home at night 
without stopping in a certain saloon not very far from 
here, and I discovered his bill in that saloon alone every 
year is |84.00 — over 70 glasses of whisky a month — 70 
glasses of w^hisky going down the throat of a man that 
stands at communion and partakes of Christ in the Holy 
Supper — 70 glasses of whisky a month to burn the lining 
out of his stomach, to saturate his body with poison, so 
that when he becomes sick no doctor can help him — 70 
glasses of whisky a month to saturate his brain, so that 
if you were to take it out of his head and set a match to it, 
it would burn — 70 glasses of whisky a month, not only to 
kindle a fire in his body, but to emphasize this great truth 
on the Judgment Day, that no drunkard shall enter the 
kingdom of heaven. It is a terrible thing, but, my friend, 
pay the bill; you have no right to rob a man even of fire 
and not pay the bill. Owe no man anything, and I would 
say to every one in tliis house to-night, stop robbing your 
own soul; stop robbing your own body of its health; stop 
robbing your Avife of your earnings; stop robbing your 
children of their bread; stop robbing the church of her 
glory ; I would say this A^ery evening, stop robbing heaven 
of your soul and body. If you owe one dollar to any saloon 
in this country, go tomorroAv and pay the bill, and forever 
afterwards stop making those bills. If there is any one 



196 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

thing clearly set forth in God's Word, it is this, that no 
drunkard shall enter the kingdom of heaven. 

A drunkard is not simply a man who must be hauled 
home in a cab; not simply a man that can hardly walk 
from being drunk. The moment that I have enough of any 
strong drink in me not to be totally myself, I am drunk, and 
a drunkard shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. What 
right have I to take God's gold, God's money and purchase 
that Avhich will be the means of my soul's damnation. 
Mark well, I do not call Avhisky damnation ; I do not call 
beer damnation. There is not a word said in this Bible 
from beginning to end that would intimate the least that 
there is any damnation in anything on earth, except in 
man and in the devil and the bad angels. Whisky is made 
of grain, and grain is used to make bread; the one is just 
as good as the other in its place. Steel will make in- 
struments of use and instruments of danger. Do not lay 
the blame anywhere else than where it belongs — it is on 
man. Man is by nature bad ; he is thoroughly bad ; he is 
going wrong just as sure as he is not on the side of God 
and righteousness. There must be a new creation take 
place in our hearts. Unless. we are born again we cannot 
see the kingdom of heaven. May God help us all this even- 
ing to owe no man anything, and at the same time to owe 
him everything. 

II. There are, in the second place, debts that we 
must let grow. "Owe no man anything but to love one 
another." There is the debt that you do not need to pay 
off; let it grow. Here we see in what manner the Apostle 
Paul wants that to grow : "For he that loveth another 
hath fulfilled the law. For this. Thou shalt not commit 
adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal. Thou 
shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not covet ; and if 
there be any other commandment, it is briefly compre- 
hended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neigh- 
bor as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor : there- 
fore love is the fulfilling of the law." Love is the debt 
you want to let grow. Oh, may God help it to grow in our 
hearts to-night toward all our fellowmen. It is not hard 
to see that the Apostle Paul is quoting largely here from 



FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 197 

the second table of the law, and not only largely, but com- 
prehensively, for he says it is briefly comprehended in this 
saying. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. When 
God gave the law to Moses, He wrote that law with His 
own finger ; it is the only part of the Bible that God wrote 
with His own finger, and with that finger of His, He wrote, 
Love your God with all your heart, with all your soul, 
with all your mind, with all your strength, and your 
neighbor as yourself. 

1. This second table of the law demands that we 
should let our love to our parents grow. It is the common 
complaint todaj^, not only in secular papers, but also in 
religious journals, that love and respect for parents and 
old age is growing colder and colder. It does seem to me 
that our youth have not got that respect and that love 
for father and mother, and for aged people, that the youth 
once had; it seems to me we are living in a very, very 
dangerous time when children are called smart for saying 
ugly things about their superiors. If there is any one 
thing we all ought to pray for; if there is any one thing 
that we ought to try to educate our youth for, it is the 
great love thej should have for father and mother. Let 
us not forget that the very first words God wrote on the 
second table of the law, with His own finger, were, "Honor 
thy father and thy mother, that it may be well with thee, 
and thou mayest live long on the earth.'' I cannot help 
seeing as I look back into my own family that my duty to 
my father and mother has always been to my conscience 
exactly as I saw them treat my grandfather. Every youth 
must see that. Just as your father and mother treated 
your grandfather and grandmother, you will try your best 
to treat them. If your own father and mother mistreated 
your grandparents, you Avill not try to improve very much 
over your parents. On the other hand, when they do all 
they possibly can for old age and for those that were 
placed over them, it is just as natural as it is for the 
water to fall from the clouds to the earth, that you follow 
in their footsteps. Let us have that debt grow. Oh, feel 
your responsibility to-day, dear father, and dear mother, 



198 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

as yon never did before, and pray God that this debt may 
grow. 

2. This love not only should grow with regard to our 
parents, but with regard to the suffering. "Thou shalt 
not kill.'' How many people tliere are all around us, isoino 
of them sick, some of them suffering; what are we doing 
to alleviate their pain; what are we doing to make their 
lives more happy; Avhat are we doing to try to get God 
to deliver them in His own good way? Let us not forget 
that he that hatetli his brother is a murderer, and that 
no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. Ask your- 
self the question this morning, what is my relation to my 
parents, to my brothers, to my sisters, to my nearest 
neighbors? How are we living in the neighborhood where 
we abide? What is my relation to my fellowmen, to my 
teacher, to my superintendent, to my pastor? Do Ave love 
each other as God asks us to love each other? What is our 
relation especially to our worst enemy? Are we wishing 
our enemies out of the way, or do we wish they were here? 
How often do we hear intimations of joy at the death of 
an enemy, or the removal of one. Oh, if I have the 
love of God in my heart, and my love to my fellow man 
is what it ought to be, if it has not been diminishing, but 
growing, I will regret to see my worst enemy move out of 
the house next door to me. If we have not got the love to 
our fellowmen that we ought to have, for their health and 
for their eternal good, let us pray that this debt may grow. 

3. How about social purity? It does seem to me that 
right on that point hinges many a question of the present 
day. The question is often asked, is it wrong to dance? 
I do not believe that one person out of ten thousand 
actually believes the act itself of dancing is Avrong; I 
do not think one minister in ten thousand believes it, but 
what Ave do mean Ave generally call dance, when Ave do 
not mean dance at all. Do you suppose those four hun- 
dred and fifty people last Friday niglit AA^ho Avent to a 
certain place to dance, AA^ent simply because they loved to 
dance? I will promise to make a room warm and keep 
up the fires until three o'clock in the morning tomorrow 
night, for any one of those persons to come at ten and 



FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 199 

dance until three in the morning just for dancing's sake. 
Not one will come. It is not that that we mean. Why do 
we not say just what we mean? The real truth is this, that 
what the people love is to obey lust, and there are thous- 
ands of people hiding lust behind the dance, and some- 
times the wrong is not done while dancing, but before and 
afterwards, and that period is only used for preparation 
for what follows. There are homes right in this city that 
have been ruined, totally ruined two weeks after the dance, 
by men that were called the gentlemen of the dance. It 
was not the dancing that was wrong. The real wrong of 
our country today is social impurity, hidden behind pro- 
gressive euchre parties, hidden behind many a game that 
is called innocent, hidden behind the courtships of young 
people, who are too young to be aAvay from home, hidden 
behind thousands of things that are all right in them- 
selves and all wrong according to their application. What 
we ought to aim for in the present day is a strict demand 
for social purity. In every home the cords should be drawn 
closer around our children that are in the hands of un- 
godly young men that are not safe in any community. 
I know there is an age when girls think the preacher does 
not know what he is talking about, when young men 
think, we know how to control ourselves, but Ave as pastors 
know some things that other people do not know, and we 
knoAv Avhat it means for a young girl's life to be ruined, 
and we know more of these ruined homes than you think 
of, and my plea to-night to all in this congregation is to 
pray and Avork for the support of social purity in every 
home, and in every city, and let that love grow. 

4. "Thou Shalt not steal." The love for strict 
honesty should grow. When that young man ran down 
the street Avith his loaf of bread, having stolen it, saying 
to Dr. Luther, "We must live," you remember the reply 
was, "Take that loaf back; you must die!" There are 
some people in the present day who think it does not make 
any difference if they get a dollar here or there in an un- 
righteous Avay, because they must live. Do not forget He 
who wrote with His OAvn finger, "Thou shalt not steal," is 
the One before whom we will stand on the Judgment Day, 



200 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

and let us not forget that before Him we will close our eyes 
in death, and the question for us to answer in every family 
is, are we honest? The child who steals a slate pencil ought 
to be made to take it back and apologize. The young man 
who rode with me on the train through Joliet, 111., pointed 
to the institution and said, "I spent seven years there, and 
I began by stealing a two-cent stamp in a store in Chicago." 
If that young man had put his two-cent stamp back instead 
of keeping it, he would have been an honest man. The 
thing for us to do is to insist upon every child that steals 
anything, having one hard whipping. I know in this day 
of what the Germans call ''monkey love," there are a great 
many people who think it is unkind to even touch a child 
with a rod. If there is anything in this world that is 
unkind, it is the abuse of children, but understand, it 
is a great deal better to .take a little cord and once in a 
child's life let it know what honesty means, than in after 
life have a bigger rope break the neck of that boy. Un- 
derstand that it is far better to take a child when he 
shows he is stubborn, and break his stubborn will when he 
is little, than to have him grow up and die in the electric 
chair. There is a time coming in every man's life, old 
or young, when he must have his stubborn will broken, and 
the sooner a child learns that, the better for his immortal 
soul. I can take the little twig and bend it easily, and 
make it grow as I want it, but when that tree gets large, 
before it will bend it will break ; and just so it is with hu- 
manity. Let us learn this morning to love strict honesty, 
and pray that is may grow. 

5. The same is true with regard to truth. "Thou 
shalt not bear false witness." Oh, how many little lies are 
laughed at as if they amounted to nothing! You cannot 
afford to let your child tell one lie and laugh at it; you 
cannot afford to let that child believe it is smart to tell 
a thing that is not true. It was onlv one little lie that 
damned the whole world, and when you stop to think that 
every pain and every ache and every death in all the world 
has been caused by what the world to-day would call a 
little white lie, what are your black lies going to do for 
the world in the future? Let us hate the untruth as we 



FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 201 

hate the devil, remembering that he is the father of it. 
Love the truth, and let that love for truth grow. 

6. Yes, I would sa}^, love the beautiful homes of 
your fellowmen. How many wives, when they visit a 
neighbor's home and find something they have not got, find 
a more beautiful home than their own, will come home dis- 
satisfied, and grumble and murmur, and then they wonder 
why their husbands do not stay at home. Why, my dear 
friends, if I had a wife like some people have wives, I 
would not try to stay at home. If there is anything in the 
world that will drive a man from home, it is the constant 
murmuring and grumbling because we have not got things 
like some one else. In these days of high prices, the 
question arises in my mind every day, how do men provide 
for their families? My own income is not the smallest, 
yet I know that I haven't one dollar a year to spend on 
myself foolishly, and when, with all the economy I can 
practice, I cannot possibly get one cent ahead, I ask myself 
the question, how do men, who sometimes are out of work 
several days in the week, provide for their families? And 
if, when they come home, after doing their very best, they 
can hear nothing but grumbling and murmuring, and dis- 
satisfaction, I say, what are you doing with your husbands 
but driving them to the gambling den, driving them out 
to lodges, and away from home, instead of having them at 
home, where they ought to be? When we are told to have 
love in our hearts for the prosperity of other peoples' 
homes, ^^Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house," thank 
the Lord if your neighbor has a better piano than you 
have; thank the Lord if he has a better home than you 
have; thank the Lord if he is prospering, and let that 
love grow. 

7. Not only should we have this love for his home, 
but for his prosperity in general. The Lord God made a 
difference between the ninth and the tenth commandments. 
In the ninth He said, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's 
house; in the tenth He referred not to things immovable, 
but to things that are movable; not to things that have 
no life, but to things that have life ; not to things to which 
you must go, but to things you can coax after you, and 



202 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

therefore He said, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's 
wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his 
cattle, nor anything that is thy neighbor's. In other words, 
if your neighbor has anything in the world that can walk, 
and can follow you, and you would be glad to have it, 
Oh, tell those things to stay at home, cattle or whatever 
it may be, and rejoice in his prosperity, and do not love 
to covet the things movable. In other words, let us have 
love in our hearts to our fellowmen, and love them as our- 
selves, and then we will find that this love will grow, and 
keep on growing as long as we live. 

One thing never can grow, and that is the thing that 
has reached perfection. You cannot imagine for a moment 
that God can grow any more. God is perfect. Did you 
ever stop to think that we are so imperfect that as long 
as we live there is always room to grow? You can love 
God more to-day than you ever did before. Can you not 
love your fellowmen better to-day than you ever did be- 
fore? Let that love grow, and let that love be a debt that 
shall keep on growing as long as you live. 

In conclusion, let me give you three thoughts to take 
home with you: 

1. God is love. There is no more beautiful definition 
in your Bible than simply that God is love. Could it 
be otherwise than that the law and the Gospel should 
be love? 

2. The first table of the law is love to God; the 
second table is love to man. How could God, who is love, 
take a pen and write the law without the ink of love? 
How could God, who is love, pour out His heart into the 
law without pouring love into that law? 

3. And how could God, who is love, give to you a 
Son that was love, and how could that Son, who died on 
Calvary for your sins, proclaim a Gospel that was not a 
Gospel of love? And the Gospel of love is this, that He 
hates sin, but loves the sinner. 

As you are sitting before me this evening I am sure 
you feel, at least to a degree, what mj own soul feels. 
Oh, how we have sinned agaist our God ! Our sins are not 
loved by our God, my friends. How can a God of love, 



FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 203 

love sin, which is the transgression of the law? But do 
not fail to remember that He who hates our sins loves the 
sinner. Do not forget that God so loved the world that 
He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth 
in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. Christ 
has given His life for you and for me, and comes to us 
this morning and says, ^^Come unto Me, all ye that labor 
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." "He 
that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." I do be- 
lieve; do you? I am baptized; are you? "Be thou faith- 
ful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." Oh 
God, what can I do for Thee? Thou hast done so much 
for me. 

Help us all to pay the debts we owe to our fellowmen, 
and then to let the debt of love grow. This is our prayer, 
and may God bless this service to our eternal good. Amen. 

PRAYER. 

Heavenly Father, give Thy rich blessing to the service of the 
evening. We thank Thee that Thou hast watched over us throughout 
this hour. We thank Thee that Thou hast given Thy servant strength 
for the hour, and we pray Thee, O God, that this message may be 
sanctified with power from on high. Oh, Thou knowest our weaknesses 
and frailties, and Thou knowest that without Thy grace we could not 
be sustained a single day. Thou knowest the battles that are being 
fought in human breasts. O heavenly Father, do Thou help this morn- 
ing that we may look around us and pay every dollar of debt that we 
owe to our fellowmen in the form of money debts, and the debt of love, 
may it grow larger and larger toward our fellowmen. We ask Thee 
especially to forgive us for any sins that we have ever committed against 
our parents or neightbors. We ask Thee to help the world to become 
socially more pure day by day. We pray Thee, heavenly Father that 
Thou wilt help us to have a great desire to be honest in Thy sight, 
to love truth and to despise lies. We pray Thee that Thou wilt give 
us real love toward our fellowmen and their prosperity in the home 
and outside of the home, and in order that we may drink more deeply 
of this great fountain, hold before us Thy love, Thy love in essence, 
Thy love in Thy law, Thy love in Thy Gospel, and now may that love 
surround us and press us to Thy heart, while we sing the prayer that 
Thou hast taught us : 

Our Father who art in heaven ; Hallowed be Thy name ; Thy 
kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven; Give 
us this day our daily bread ; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 



204 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

give those who trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation; 
But deliver us from evil; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 

A Stranger in the Sanctuary. 

Col. 3:12-17. 

PUT on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of 
mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; 
forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man 
have a quarrel against any : even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. 
And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of per- 
fectness. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which 
also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. Let the Word of 
Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom ; teaching and admonishing one 
another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in 
your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do 
all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father 
by Him. 

Sanctify us, O ,Lord, through Thy truth: 
Th}^ Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved in Christ: 

I believe it was Carlyle who said there were so many 
millions in England — mostly fools. It is no strange as- 
sertion. Great thinkers have always declared that men 
are very scarce, even in the midst of the multitude. You 
have often heard that story of God himself, in the city 
of Jerusalem, sending out men and saying, "Kun ye to 
and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, 
and knoAv, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can 
find a man.'' Jer. 5 :1. In that large city of Jerusalem 
God himself was sending messengers to find a man. That 
sounds a good deal like the story of Diogenes, who used 
to walk on the streets of Athens with a lantern at noon; 
when stopped or asked what he was looking for, he re- 
plied that he was hunting a good man. Herodotus said, 
in that familiar language of the day, "Homines permulti, 

205 



206 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

viri perpauci," or, in our own language, "Human beings 
very many ; men very few.'' At one time a cynic was sent 
out to call good men to appear before the Eoman censor. 
This man walked out to the graveyard, stood on a new 
grave and said, "Get up, you dead." SoDie people wanted 
to know what he meant. "Why," he said, "I am sent out 
to find good men and they are all under the ground." 

The lesson of the evening pictures to us a new man, 
a stranger in the sanctuary. It is no trouble in these days 
to find congregations, no trouble to find multitudes in the 
church when the weather is nice, but the question that 
presents itself to every man of God is this, who are Chris- 
tians? and the more we compare the average man with 
the demands of God's Holy Word, the more we are led 
to believe that there are church members many. Chris- 
tians few. "Many are called," says God, "but few are 
chosen." 

A STRANGER IN THE SANCTUARY. 

Can you help me find him tonight? Let me describe 
him: 

I. He is a very highly favored man. The Lord says 
of him that he is elect of God, holy and beloved. Some- 
times we feel our own sins until we are almost compelled 
to cry out, with Paul, O wretched man that I am, who 
shall deliver me? But let us not forget that if we are 
true children of God, if we have been called by His Gos- 
pel, enlightened by His gift, if we have repented of our 
sins and believe on Christ, and have had our sins washed 
aAvay with the blood of the Lamb, and have been baptized 
in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, and en- 
tered into the covenant of God, and have made up our 
minds to be faithful to Him until death : remember God 
says of us, we are elect. It is a great blessing and an 
honor to be elected as the best friend even of a ruler of a 
country like our own; it is an honor to be elected to the 
cabinet of our own president, but, my friends, when the 
King of kings and Lord of lords elects a man, it is a dou- 
ble honor, the highest that man can receive in this world. 
This stranger in the sanctuary is an elect man. 



FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 207 

He is not only elect, but he is also holy. "Put on 
therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved." Not 
that we are holy in ourselves, nor that this man never 
sinned, not that this man is so perfect now he can not 
sin, but he has a holy Kedeemer; he has accepted the 
holy righteousness of his Savior; he has the Holy Spirit 
within him; he is cleansed of his sin and is walking in 
the way of his Master, and, having Jesus Christ by faith, 
God says this, my stranger in the sanctuary is holy, and 
just because he is elect and holy, God calls him His be- 
loved. 

It is a great thing to be loved by the Lord our God 
as His child. God loves even His enemies; He loves the 
whole world. "God so loved the world that He gave 
His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him 
should not perish, but have everlasting life." There is 
therefore no man on earth who can say God does not 
love me, and there will be no man in hell who can say, 
God did not love me; but when we, loved of God, accept 
Him as our Savior, become His children in the covenant 
of holy baptism, are faithful to Him until death, we are 
not only loved, but we are His beloved children; so is 
the stranger in the sanctuary. 

II. He wears a good warm suit. We are hunting 
tonight for this stranger in the sanctuary. What kind 
of clothing does he wear? He wears the garment of 
Christ's righteousness, and Christ's Spirit, and Christ's 
love. The very fact that he is elect of God shows that he 
is justitied by faith, and, when he is justified by faith, 
the righteousness of Jesus Christ becomes his righteous- 
ness. Understand what justification by faith is. When 
I, as a poor sinner, look at the cross of Calvary and see 
my Savior bleeding and dying, and acknowledge that He 
is bleeding and dying for me, a poor, lost, condemned 
sinner, accept Him then as my substitute, as the Lamb 
of God that taketh away the sins of the world, then the 
Father in heaven, on account of the righteousness of 
Jesus Christ, declares me justified, not on account of any- 
thing I have done or merited, but alone out of pure mercy. 
When I, therefore, accept the righteousness of Jesus 



208 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

Christ, I am elect, and that is the dress that this stranger 
in the sanctuary Avears, the righteousness of his own Lord 
and Savior, Jesus Christ. 

He wears not only His righteousness, but he wears 
also the very spirit of Christ. ^Tut on therefore, as the 
elect of God, holy and beloved, boAvels of mercies, kind- 
ness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuff ering ; for- 
bearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any 
man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave 
you, so also do ye." In other words, this most beautiful 
garment is the dress of the stranger in the sanctuary. 
Too many people who call themselves Christians are none. 
Ask yourself the question tonight, as I read, whether you 
are wearing these garments. "Bowels of mercies" — an 
Hebrew expression which in our language Avould mean 
full of mercy, a heart of mercy. Do you always have 
mercy on j^our fellowmen as Christ did? Are you wear- 
ing His spirit? "Kindness" — Are you watching out 
for opportunities to do some one a kind act? Are you 
always looking for opportunities to lend a helping hand 
to all Avho are in need? This garment is worn by the 
stranger in the sanctuary. "Humbleness of mind" — Jesus 
Christ was humble; He loved to be the servant even of 
poor sinners ; He loved to go and wash their feet, in order 
to show them how to serve their fellowmen. He was so 
humble that He slept, not in a grave of His own, but in 
the borrowed grave of Joseph of Arimathaea. Have you 
the spirit of that Christ that slept in a borrowed grave? 
Are you humble enough to say to your fellowmen, take 
the highest seat and let me sit down lower? x\re you 
worrying because some one has a higher position? If so, 
you have not got the garment worn by the stranger in 
the sanctuary. "Meekness, long suffering;" The Lord 
our Savior is gentle and meek and God wants us to come 
to Him. Have you got the meekness of the Master? Oh, 
what patience God has with us. Some of us have not 
been serving God as we should. Some of you may have 
been walking in the paths of Satan all your lives; some 
of you may have been invited time and again by your 
Lord and Master to come into His service, to give your 



FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 209 

hearts to Him, but you have gone on in the path of de- 
struction further and further, and the Avonder is, even 
to us poor sinners, that God has not struck you dead 
long ago. The question in our minds is, how can He 
have such patience? How can He let the sun shine upon 
the evil as well as upon the good? How can He let you 
sleep and rest day after day, night after night, and treat 
you as if you were the very best of His children, when 
He knows you are His enemy? Oh, the long-suffering of 
Jesus Christ. And now, my friends, when we are the 
stranger in the sanctuary, the new man spoken of in this 
chapter, we have the spirit of that long-suffering. And 
when people will not do as we want them to do, this week, 
or this year, we will wait another month or another year, 
and say, God may yet have mercy upon him. Such, my 
friends, is the dress of the man who is a stranger in the 
sanctuary. "Forbearing one another, and forgiving one 
another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as^ 
Christ forgave you, so also do ye." The unforgiving spirit 
of the professed Christian is seen on all hands. There 
are some professed Christians who live almost in the same 
yard, who never speak to each other; there are professed 
Christians in the same church who never shake hands; 
who never take a step toward their fellowmen ; who never 
care to know any one outside of their little circle. I am 
not referring to any special persons, but the spirit of 
charity, love and forgiveness as found in Jesus Christ 
is found in so few people, even in the Christian church, 
that the man who has the spirit of Christ is a stranger 
even in the sanctuary. 

We might call these garments internal, or under-gar- 
ments, but there is another garment which this stranger 
wears over all the rest. "And above all these things put 
on charity, which is the bond of perfectness." A man 
may have ever so beautiful a coat, but if he has no but- 
tons and no way to fasten it, it is not complete. The 
apostle Paul pictures this stranger in the sanctuary, this 
new man, as having a garment drawn around the garment 
of election, and the garment of the spirit of Christ, as 

14 



210 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

the garment of love, and even as one would take a girdle 
and tie it around his garments that they may all fit, or 
as he may take the buttons or the hooks and fasten the 
garments just as they should be, so says this apostle, this 
stranger in the sanctuary is a man who has dwelt so close 
to Christ, as John did wiien he laid his head on the Mas- 
ter's breast, that he has drunk in the love of Calvary 
until he is so filled with it that he must go out, and Christ 
like, try to offer himself for the good people of the world. 
Have you got that garment on tonight? Do you know the 
stranger in the sanctuary who is wearing these three gar- 
ments as a child of God, the new man, should? 

III. This stranger in the sanctuary has a good sound 
heart. "With grace in your heart to the Lord," says the 
apostle. Not only has he got grace in the heart, he has 
peace in the heart. "And let the peace of God rule in 
your hearts." Not only has he peace in the heart, but 
he has gratitude there as well. "And be ye thankful, giv- 
ing thanks to God and the Father by Him." 

So I say this stranger in the sanctuary is not one who 
has the heart disease; he has in his heart first of all the 
grace of God. If there is any one thing we all need in 
our hearts, it is an abundance of the grace of God, and 
to have His grace we should make good use of the means 
of grace. The Word of God and the Holy Sacraments are 
the channels through which the Holy Spirit operates on 
man; they are the channels through which He conveys 
His grace to us, and if, therefore, we desire to have good 
sound hearts, we must hear God's Word; we must think 
of our baptismal convenant prayerfully every day, and as 
Jesus went down, not into the river Jordan, but into His 
grave, and arose again from the dead, so we should daily 
walk in newness of life. As Paul says in Rom. 6 :4 : 
"We are buried with Him by baptism into death: that 
like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory 
of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness 
of life." The question arises tonight, are you making 
good use of the means of grace? Are you hearing God's 
Word? Are you going to the Lord's Supper as you should, 
and are you getting Jesus Christ Himself in that supper, 



FIFTH SUNDAY AFTEE EPIPHANY. 211 

as He Himself promised? Have you got the grace of 
God in your heart? If not, you are not the stranger in 
the sanctuary who is here described as the new man. 

And not only grace, but peace we must have in our 
hearts. "And let the peace of God rule in your hearts.'^ 
Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace, and this the angels 
in heaven knew when they sang at His birth, "Glory to 
God in the highest, on earth peace, good will toward men." 
That little Savior that slept in the crib of Bethlehem was 
Peace from heaven, the Prince of Peace. Before He came 
into the world all nations were at war with each other, 
and all people were at war with their God, but when the 
Prince of Peace came. He made peace between man and 
man, and God and man, and He made peace between na- 
tions which were truly Christian. Do not misunderstand 
me ; the Prince of Peace never declared that war dare not 
go on in this world; He never said that ungodly men 
should become saints unless they became Christians. Let 
us not think for a single moment that the Lord Jesus 
Christ will allow Satan so to sleep that children of the 
devil can really be children of God without being born 
again. When men have not got the peace of God in their 
hearts they want war and they are going to have war, and 
they are going to demonstrate to the world that they are 
murderers, as they are, whether they carry the sword or 
not. He that is an enemy against God must be an enemy 
against his fellowmen, but remember, the moment we 
accept the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, the moment 
we make peace with God, we want peace with our fellow- 
men, and this stranger in the sanctuary has the grace of 
God in his heart, he has peace with God, and he wants 
peace with all his fellowmen. 

He not only has peace in his heart, but he becomes 
thankful. I tell you the more a man realizes what God 
has done for him, Avhat He did for him on Calvary's hill, 
the more thankful he becomes. A man is really an un- 
thankful wretch who can enjoy all the blessings God is 
continually showering down upon him and never say, I 
thank Thee, O, my God. Oh, let the sound heart be filled 
with thankfulness! Let the sound heart realize that God 



212 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

is King, and that He knows what He is doing, and no dif- 
ference what befalls us, if we have love to God, all things 
work together for good to them that love God. Any- 
heathen can thank God for gold and for good health; it 
takes a child of God, a Christian, to thank God for the 
loss of gold, and loss of health, for death. The thing for 
us to do, if we are the stranger in God's sanctuary, being 
the new man, is to say, my God, I thank Thee for the 
beautiful evening, though it is thundering and lightning. 
Thank God for the beautiful weather though the c^^clone 
sweeps over the city; thank God for all things being done 
by the hand of the Almighty. 

IV. This stranger not only has a sound heart, but 
he is a great student of God's Word. "Let the Word of 
Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and 
admonishing one another in psalms." From these words 
and others that I might quote in this lesson, we find that 
this new man, this stranger in the sanctuary, is one who 
loves to have the Word of Christ or the Word of God 
dwell richly in his heart. This new man never stays out 
of the Church of God unless he is sick and cannot reach 
the temple ; you always find him in God's house ; this new 
man wants to hear the exposition of every Bible text; he 
wants to learn something more of the great deep of God's 
Holy Word, and just as one who is accustomed to sitting 
at a good table and eating from the hands of a good cook, 
is not satisfied with anything that is poorly prepared, 
just so this new man wants the very best that he can 
get out of God's holy Word, and he never is satisfied; 
the more he eats of this great truth the more he wants, 
and the more he eats the healthier he gets, and the 
healthier he gets, the more he wants of this great truth, 
so that he actually hungers for the Word of God in the 
Divine service. 

He not only hungers for this Word in the Divine 
service, but he lias this Word in his home. This new man, 
this stranger in the sanctuary, has family worship, reads 
the Word of God daily in his home, the Word dwells in 
him; it not only comes to him once a week, or once a 
month, but it so dwells in him that every day he Avants 



FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 213 

to know more of God's Word. This stranger therefore, 
does not sit down at the table and eat without prayer; 
he does not go home day after day and never see the 
Bible; he does not rear his family like a set of heathen; 
he wants his Bible on the altar just the same as he wants 
his bread on the table. This stranger wants his family 
fed on the Word of the eternal God; he wants to attend 
every conference and every meeting in his church, for the 
purpose of learning and teaching. 

"Let the Word of God dwell in you richly in all 
wisdom ; teaching and admonishing one another." It seems 
to me the apostle Paul had in mind something like a good 
teacher's meeting, where they all come together, and if 
one man knows something the other does not, he gives 
that idea and that truth to the others. In other words, 
this stranger would not miss a teachers' meeting unless 
he is sick ; he would be w^here he can learn of others, and 
teach. He is a great student of God's Word. 

V. He is a great man to sing. "Let the Word of 
Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and 
admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spir- 
itual songs, singing Avith grace in your hearts to the Lord." 
He does not sing for show; he does not sing for peo- 
ple, but he sings to get other people to sing from the 
heart to heaven. When he rises to sing he does not care 
about the position of his hands; he does not care where 
he stands; he does not care whether people can see him 
or not; there is no show about this new man. This 
stranger in the sanctuary has in mind that there is a 
God who deserves all the glory, who deserves all the 
praise, and therefore you find him usually with a Bible 
in his hand; if he has not got a Bible in his hand he has 
the Psalms in his head; he has so many of the old songs 
of the Bible either before his eyes or in his head and in 
his heart that wherever he goes he is making melody to 
the Father in heaven, through the Lord Jesus Christ, 
and by the Holy Spirit. 

You find this new man coming to church with a hymn- 
book in his hand; you cannot hire him to sit down like a 
block ; you cannot hire him to sit down in a church to be 



214 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

entertained; this new man is going to have a hjmn-book 
if he has to sell the garment off of his back to get it; he 
is going to open it up to the very hymn and read it over, 
remembering that the hymn is a prayer, and when the 
congregation is singing he is going to sing along in his 
heart, if not with his lips ; he is going to take p^rt in that 
prayer; he cannot help it; he would feel like a rebel in 
the house of God, unless he took part in the songs as well 
as in the psalms. If a new hymnal is out he wants it; he 
will not only praise God with psalms, but with hymns — 
hymns of the olden times and hymns of modern times, and 
if a new hymn is introduced that is as good as the old, 
he says, let us sing the new hymn, for every day we are 
enjoying new blessings of our heavenly Father. If "Lead, 
Kindly Light," is not in the old hymnal, let us put it into 
the new, and sing. If there is another hymn in the world 
as good as "Eock of Ages," let us sing it. If there is a 
new hymn, no difference who penned it, that will give 
special glory to my God, I want that hymn. He is a won- 
derful singer; he sings as a child of God; he sings no 
difference whether he knows the notes or not; no dif- 
ference whether he can carry the melody or not, nothing 
in the world can deter him from being a singer. When- 
ever people come into his home who can sing, he says, let 
us sing; when the congregation meets he says, let us have 
good congregational music; he is constant in singing, 
"Praise God from whom all blessings flow." In these 
words you have the picture of a new man, so new that 
you can hardly find him in the First Lutheran Church; 
that you can hardly find him in any church. "A man 
wanted," was the cry on the streets of Jerusalem ; "A man 
wanted," was the cry on the streets of Athens; "A man 
wanted," is the cry today in the house of God, a new 
man, a stranger in the sanctuary, one that has the dress 
on that God wants him to wear, that has the spirit that 
Christ had; that will sing the songs of praise that God 
wants him to sing; he does not confine himself to the 
Psalms, nor to the church hymnal; lie is willing to sing 
any good sacred music. 

"Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with 



FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 215 

grace in your hearts to the Lord." Spiritual songs. How 
foolish it is to teach our children all the nonsensical songs 
they are singing these days, no substance to them, noth- 
ing to them worth remembering, when the world is so full 
of good sacred music ; so full of music that is worth sing- 
ing on our dying beds. What use is there teaching our 
children to sing the little ditties that have neither sense 
nor music in them? This new man says we ought to have 
good songs in the public schools and in the singing schools, 
that our books ought to be filled with songs with Christ 
in them. 

VI. You will be a little surprised when I tell you 
that this new man is a great society man. I do not think 
he belongs to any secret societies, for in the 17th verse 
we read : '^And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do 
all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God 
and the Father by Him.'' In other words, this new man 
never goes anywhere unless lie can take Jesus Christ 
right Avith him. All he thinks and says, and all that he 
does must have Christ in it. It is Jesus that makes his 
society so great. In my examination of eighteen years 
I have only found two secret orders that had Christ in 
them, and the one is hardly worth calling a secret order; 
the other you cannot find Christ until you get away up in 
the highest degree and pay at least four or five hundred 
dollars. You do not have to pay four or five hundred 
dollars to find the Christ that I worship. Then the order 
that has Christ in the highest degree demands of a man 
that he drink some wine out of a human skull, with a 
drawn sword, as heathen did in ancient times, but I do 
not believe the Christ I worship demands of any man 
that he get' a human skull to drink wine from. So, I say, 
I do not believe this new man belongs to any secret order; 
I do not believe he is an Elk, either. You see here that 
he is elect, but it does not say one word about him being 
an Elk. Why do I mention Elk tonight? A few weeks 
ago, there was printed in the papers of Mansfield, Ohio, 
the laws on gambling, the laws against selling tickets 
for an automobile. I say the law against that is just as 
firm, just as plain and strict as the law. Thou shalt not 



216 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

kill. Every man in this citj^ knows that this gambling 
has been going on. Day before yesterday one of our city 
papers came out and announced that on a certain night 
the drawing would take place for the automobile. In 
other words, the gambling was going on. We are told 
that this Avas done by the "Best People On Earth;" my 
friends, in all kindness, if these are tlie best people on 
earth, God deliver us from the worst. I have nothing to 
say about individuals, but I do say that after yesterday 
morning. Dr. Meese of the Presbyterian Church, Dr. 
Baltzley of the St. Luke's Lutheran Church and mj^self, 
as chairman, of the committee for the good of this city, 
went to the mayor, showed him the law and got him to 
promise that he would do all he could to stop that gamb- 
ling. After a man from Cleveland drew an automobile 
from the Elks of this city last* night, in the face of the 
laws of Ohio, in the face of everything that is just and 
right, teaching our young men to gamble, carrying on a 
system that should not be tolerated in any civilized land, 
I wish publicly to declare tonight, showing that I have 
done my duty as a member of this committee, that surely 
the curse of God must rest upon such actions, and I do 
hope if there is any man here tonight who belongs to that 
order, that he will demand, as a good citizen of Ohio, 
that that gambling business stop in the future. I do 
hope, if there are any young men here tonight who are 
out of the clutches of these organizations that they will 
stay out until they come out fully and wholly on the side 
of God. This new man is no Elk ; this new man is a man 
that never goes anywhere unless he can take Jesus Christ 
with him. I know, as well as I know anything, that Jesus 
Christ would not have spent the last three nights dancing 
until two and three o'clock in the morning; I know He 
would not have carried on the meeting last night into 
the holy Lord's Day, as Avas done this morning. The time 
has come that the pulpit must speak against every evil, 
whether it is in the church or out of tlie church, and I 
have no apology to make, no apology w hatever. What I 
say tonight is right, and every sensible man knows it, 
and when men who call themselves the best people on 



FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 217 

earth are going deliberately in the face of the laws of 
the state, are going to trample upon all laws of right, 
are going to break the Sabbath Day, then, I say, it is 
time that the people cry out against such institutions, 
no difference by what name they are knoAvn. 

This new man when he thinks, thinks of Jesus; when 
lie talks, he talks of things that pertain to the good of 
the world in time and forever; when he works, he works 
along by the side of tlie Lord Jesus Christ. "And what- 
ever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the 
Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by 
Him." Why is it that some people do not understand 
such sermons as I am preaching tonight? In the first 
place, it is because they do not want to understand them, 
and, on the otlier hand, if they would want to, it is be- 
cause they are not trying to live as Christ wants us to 
live. When you once live as God wants you to live, when 
you think as God wants you to think, when you speak 
as God Avants you to speak, when you work as God wants 
you to work, you have absolutely no time to waste as so 
many people in tlie world are wasting time today. 

Who is this stranger in the sanctuary? There is 
only one answer to the question. It is the true Christian, 
the new man, who has put off the old man. "Lie not one 
to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with 
his deeds, and have put on the new man, which is re- 
newed in knoAvledge after the image of Him that created 
him." Oh, what a beautiful man Adam must have been 
before he sinned! Created in the image of God, the new 
man puts off the old man of sin, and puts on the new 
man, and tries as near as possible to be like Adam be- 
fore he sinned. And now may God help us all tonight 
to keep the laws of God, the laws of our country, and, 
first of all, to be a good citizen of the kingdom of 
our God, and then a citizen of this state, and so live 
that on that last great day we may find ourselves to be 
citizens of the kingdom of heaven. May God bless this 
sermon tonight to our eternal good, is my prayer. Amen. 



218 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 



PRAYER. 

Our Father, we come before Thee in this evening hour asking 
Thee to awaken the conscience, not only of this congregation, but of all 
the congregations in this city and in the world; and we pray Thee, 
heavenly Father, do Thou waken the conscience of the people who are 
respected and looked up to, and yet are the means of leading others 
to break laws and leading them down the path of destruction, because 
they will not walk with Christ. We ask Thy special blessing this even- 
ing to rest upon each individual in this church. O Lord, as we go out 
of this temple tonight do Thou help us to go out as a stranger in the 
sanctuary, and yet as one who feels at home here, because he is the 
new man. Create in us clean hearts, O God, and renew right spirits 
within us. Go with us throughout the coming week and throughout the 
balance of life. Help that we may constantly be supplied with Thy grace 
in our hearts; lift us up on the plains of life into the very footprints of 
the Lord Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray : 

Our Father who art in heaven ; Hallowed be Thy name ; Thy 
kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven; Give 
us this day our daily bread ; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation; 
But deliver us from evil ; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 

Peter's Power. 

II Pet. 1 :16-21. 

fOR we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made 
known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from 
God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to Him 
from the excellent glory, This is My beloved Son in whom I am well 
pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we 
were with Him in the holy mount. We have also a more sure word 
of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light 
that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise 
in your hearts ; knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is 
of any private interpretation ; for the prophecy came not in old time by 
the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the 
Holy Ghost. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Dear Brethren in Christ : 

I have always loved the character of the Apostle 
Peter, and one reason I have loved him possibly more 
than many other characters, is because I have always 
found my weaknesses so much like his. The Apostle 
Peter was one of those impetuous characters that was 
always plunging into things until he stirred up every- 
body around him, and once in a while he plunged into 
things he would gladly have plunged out of if he could 
have done so. We find so much of ourselves in the Apos- 
tle Peter that we love to study his character. There are 
two or three characteristics of the man that make him 
wonderful. One of the first is that he was always stirring 
up things around him. He says, in the 13th verse of this 
same chapter, ^'Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in 

219 



220 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remem- 
brance." He says in this same epistle, chapter 3 :1 : "This 
second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you, in both 
which I stir up your minds by way of remembrance.'' 
You will remember that as a disciple of Christ he was 
always the spokesman, and when others were quiet you 
could depend upon it, Peter would be up and fight for his 
Master, even at the gate of Gethsemane. 

Not only was he getting things stirred up around 
him, but we find that he had absolutely no fear of death, 
and always spoke in such a way as if it were the mes- 
sage of a d^dng man to dying men. He spoke of death 
rather pleasantly. He says here in v. 14 : "Knowing 
that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as 
our Lord Jesus Christ hath shelved me." You remember 
the Lord prophesied he would not die a natural death, 
but that he would suffer martyrdom ; that never bothered 
Peter; he never worried anything about it; he simply 
looked upon his body as a house in which his soul dwelt, 
and he knew that when the day came for God to call his 
soul home, it was just like moving out of an old, rickety 
shanty into a great mansion, and that could not trouble 
him at all. Nevertheless, it made a wonderful impres- 
sion on his sermons and on his writings. If you knew 
this was your last day on earth, you would doubtless do 
some things you are lea^dng undone; if I knew this were 
my last sermon, I should say some things I am leaving 
unsaid. The Apostle Peter, realizing that he was not to 
die by sickness, but by a martyr's death, never knew what 
moment he would be offered, and consequently always 
spoke and wrote as if they were the last words the world 
would hear from him. 

That leads to another characteristic of the man, and 
that is that he always said and wrote those things that 
he need not be ashamed of after his death. He says in 
V. 15: "Moreover I will endeavor that ye may be able 
after my decease to have these things always in remem- 
brance." He was very close to death, no question about 
that, and he knew very well that when he was dead there 
would be trouble arising in the Church that needed cor- 



SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 221 

rection, and he wanted to leave a message back that the 
people might read after he had closed his eyes in death, 
and, therefore, I say he was always very careful to say 
just such things as he wanted said long after he was^ 
dead. 

My dear friends, the very text that I have tonight 
is the words of the Apostle Peter. Just notice how a man 
lives after his death if he is true to his God. I am satis- 
fied if the Apostle Peter were living today he would have 
reported every sermon that he preached, and he would 
preach in sucli a way that lie would not need to be 
ashamed of his sermons; and I claim that every minister 
of the Gospel should so preach that he need never be 
ashamed of the words he has spoken. Do you suppose 
that if I were ashamed of my sermons I would have them 
put in cold print to speak long after I am dead? The 
very sermon that has created the greatest stir in this city 
of possibly any that I have ever preached, I have had 
printed in my book, and I defy any man to show me one 
sentence in it that is wrong; 1 want it to stand in cold 
print long after this tongue is silent. A man has no 
business to preach from the pulpit what he cannot back 
up, and when he can back it up as the truth, he ought 
to be willing to have it go in cold print and stand for 
tliousands of years after his A^oice is silent. 

We are told in the text of the evening that these 
things are not fables. 'Tor we have not followed cun- 
ningly devised fables, when Ave made known unto you the 
poAver and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were 
eypAvitnesses of His majesty." May the Holy Spirit bless 
us tonioht Avhile Ave are learninj? of 



This poAver is demonstrated in two ways: 

I. He positively knew tliat Jesus Avas the Savior of the 

world. 
II. He positiA^ely knew that the Bible was the inspired 
Word of God. 



222 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

And these two thoughts made Peter a power, no differ- 
ence whether he wrote or preached. 

I. What did he know about Jesus Christ, and how 
did he know it? He tells us in this text of three things 
that he positively knew : "For we have not followed cun- 
ningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the 
power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were 
eyewitnesses of His majesty." There are three words 
here that explain just what he knew about Jesus; he 
knew His power; he knew His coming; he knew His 
majesty, and those three things made Peter a great power. 

1. He knew the power of the miracles of Christ. 
Peter was the man who had been fishing all night, and 
rowed out into the deep, and at the word of God threw 
out his net and drew in more fishes than they could haul 
in one little vessel, and there he recognized the power of 
Jesus Christ. He recognized His power not only in that 
miracle, but in many other miracles which He performed, 
Peter positively knew that Jesus could say to the water, 
"^^Be wine," and it was wine; he positively knew that 
Jesus Christ could step into the room where the little 
dead daughter lay, take her hand and say, "Arise," and 
she arose; he positively knew that Jesus Christ could go 
to the grave of a man that was buried four days, and say, 
^^Lazarus, come forth," and he came forth. The Apostle 
Peter positively knew the power of the eye of Christ. 
You will remember that Peter, in his hour of weakness, 
denied the Master; he not only denied Him, but in that 
hour of weakness the old fisherman's spirit came back and 
he began to curse and swear in the presence of the ene- 
mies of Christ; and the Lord Jesus Christ was not very 
far away. He had told Peter before that before the cock 
crew twice he would deny Him thrice, and now Peter was 
carrying out that prophecy to the letter. Jesus Christ, 
looking down into the court, saw Peter; He did not scold 
him; He did not walk up and say, "Peter, didn't I tell 
you you would deny Me?" He did not say, "Peter, how 
does it come that you, My own follower, stand here and 
swear, and have thus disgrac-ed Me and all My disciples?" 
No. The Lord Jesus Christ simply walked past Peter and 



SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 223 

looked at him, and kept on looking at him until His eyes 
had penetrated him and made him feel his sins. He felt 
the power of the eye of God, and, feeling that power, he 
could stand it no longer, and Avalked out, and buried his 
face in his hands, and wept bitterly. Peter knew the 
power of Jesus Christ; there was no question about that; 
there was no fable about it. 

He not only knew His miraculous power, but he 
kncAv His saving power. The Apostle Peter said in that 
little ship, "Depart from me for I am a sinful man." He 
realized the fact that Jesus Christ, and a sinner and his 
sins could not all remain in the same little boat. In- 
stead, however, of Jesus Christ departing and leaving 
Peter and his sins in the vessel. He said, You stay here, 
and I will stay here, and we will make the sins depart, 
and He saved him in that little vessel more completely 
and fully than he ever had been before. And then, Avhen 
Peter had denied his Master, he remembered what Jesus 
had said, "When thou art converted, strengthen thy 
brethren." Peter's blunder made him repent, and when 
he repented he turned back, and when he turned back he 
was converted; and ever after that poor Peter was hum- 
ble, and he remembered the saving power of the Lord 
Jesus Christ. 

And not only the power that saved Peter, but he 
remembered the power that had saved the others; he 
remembered the power on Calvary's hill that saved that 
blasphemer, that malefactor, on the cross, and when he 
remembered all the saving power of Jesus Christ, he 
wanted it distinctly understood that he was not telling 
fables; he was telling something that he positively knew, 
and that is the power of Jesus Christ. 

He not only knew His power, but he also knew some- 
thing of the coming of Jesus Christ. He knew from the 
Old Testament, which was a light that shineth in a dark 
place, that there was a Savior to come; he knew that the 
Lord Jesus Christ had come; he knew that He was born 
in the crib of Bethlehem ; he knew that he had gone down 
into Egypt, and from there back to Nazareth, and began 
His ministry after being a carpenter; he knew that the 



224 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

Lord and Savior Jesus Christ had come into the world, 
and by His miracles had demonstrated that He was the 
promised Messiah; he knew He had power over life and 
death; he positively knew, therefore, that He was the 
Messiah that was promised, and should come, and not 
only should come, but would come again. But remember, 
this was the same Apostle Peter who saw Jesus Christ 
on the Mount of Transfiguration; the same Apostle Peter 
who went out that day with the rest of His disciples 
when Jesus gave the last command, "Go ye into all the 
world and preach the Gospel to every creature, and he 
that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that 
helieveth not shall be damned,'' and, with hands uplifted, 
blessed them, and ascended higher and higher, past the 
stars and zones and whirling world systems until He 
went home in the presence of His Father; and when they 
looked around they saw^ two angels, who said, "Ye men of 
Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same 
Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so 
come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven." 
Peter knew that Christ Avas coming and that he was not 
telling a fable, a story, when he spoke of the coming of 
Jesus Christ, not only the first advent, but the second 
as well. 

He not only knew of the coming of Christ, but he 
knew of His majesty. "For we have not followed cun- 
ningly devised fables, when we made known unto you 
the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were 
eyewitnesses of His majesty." Oh, the majesty of the 
Son of God! You will not forget, my friends, that while 
Jesus Christ was in the state of humiliation, where He 
made no use of His divine power, that after all, He was 
the Son of God. Do not forget that when He was bap- 
tized, the Father from heaven said. This is My beloved 
Son, in whom I am well pleased. Do not forget that 
when He was down in the garden of Gethsemane, sweat- 
ing drops of blood, when Judas and the soldiers came 
out to arrest Him, that He did not try to run away, but 
walked out to the gate and said to the soldiers standing 
around. Whom seek ye? They said, Jesus of Nazareth. 



SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 225 

He said, I am He; and every soldier dropped to the 
ground. What made them fall? It was not that Jesus 
Christ struck them. Yes, He struck them with His 
majesty and they could not touch him. Peter says here, 
^'For we were eyewitnesses of His majesty." As you 
heard in the Gospel lesson for this same Sunday, he and 
eTohn and James went up into a certain mountain, with 
Jesus Christ, apart from the Avorld, and all at once they 
look, and behold, the face of Jesus Christ was like the 
^un. His garments were as bright as the light and lo, and 
behold, there stands the man that stood on Mount Sinai 
and received the law from God I Moses is there. And 
there stands the man that took his flight to heaven in a 
chariot of fire — Elijah ! And Peter, the man that always 
stirred up things, said, Let us build here three taber- 
nacles : one for Thee, O Christ ; one for thee, O Moses, 
and one for thee, Elias, as he is called in the Septuagint; 
and then a brightness came over Him that struck Peter, 
and James and John to the ground, and a voice came 
down — the same voice that three years before this came 
dowm to the Jordan, and said, "This is My beloved Son; 
hear ye Him.'' You understand that the Apostle Peter 
saw the majesty of Christ; it was not a story or fable. 

2. On what w^as his knowledge based? How did he 
know these things? I want to say right here that the 
Apostle Peter knew that Jesus Christ was the Savior of 
the world just as well as you and I know anything that 
we know^ in this life. Men have asked the question, How 
do you know that Jesus Christ is the Savior? Might not 
these witnesses have been mistaken? Might not the Bible 
be mistaken? Might not the Jews be right, who are still 
looking for a Savior? I say no, and everybody knows 
that they never will find another Savior. How do we 
know that? We know it this way: A record was kept 
in ancient times of the families of the Old Testament, and 
these records were deposited in the temple at Jerusalem. 
In those records you could trace any child that was born, 
back to the days of Abraham. After Christ was born 
God saw^ to it that the temple was burned and the records 

15 



226 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

destroyed, and there is no Jew on earth today would 
know whether any child born w^as a son of Abraham and 
a son of David, as prophesied in the Old Testament, no 
difference where or when he would be born. God has 
demonstrated the fact that the Savior has come. I say 
here tonight that we know just as positively that Jesus 
Christ is the only Savior of the world, as we know any- 
thing. How do you know there is a land of Egypt? How 
many of you have been there? If there is a man in this 
audience tonight who has ever been in Egypt, I wish he 
would stand up; I would like to look at him. Not one, 
and yet you say there is a land of Egypt. How do you 
know? Did you ever let the sands of Egypt run through 
your fingers? Did you ever see Egypt with your own 
eyes? Did you ever go and feel Egypt, or hear a voice 
there? You say you could. Possibly you could, but will 
you doubt there is such a place before you go to see? 
Every man in this audience tonight positively knows there 
is a land of Egypt. You positively know there was such 
a man as George Washington. Did you ever see him? 
I did not. Did you ever shake hands with him? I did 
not. Did you ever hear him speak? No. You never 
heard him; you never saw him, and yet you positively 
know there was a George Washington. I know just as 
positively that there is a Jesus Christ as I know there 
was a George Washington. 

.The Apostle Peter says. This is no fable I am telling 
you; I have felt and know the power of the Lord Jesus 
Christ ; I have seen Him with my ow^n eyes ; I am not 
telling you some little story that I cannot verify; I have 
heard with my own ears. If the Apostle Peter, a man 
who died for the truth, cannot be trusted, how can I 
trust you, and how can we trust the history of the United 
States? The Apostle Peter is as good a witness as the 
world ever had, among men; he was willing to be cruci- 
fied with his head down, that he might not dishonor his 
Master, who was crucified with His head up. Tradition 
tells us when his own wife was led to the martyr's pyre 
he said, "Pemember thy Lord, O wife!" He was not 
only willing himself to die, but that his family should die 



SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 227 

for the truth. If we cannot believe men who .die for the 
truth, how can we believe men who need not suffer to 
tell it? 

He knew it not only by his own testimony; he knew 
it by the testimony of others who were good witnesses. 
He does not say here, I saw Him with my own eyes, but 
he says, "For we have not followed cunningly devised 
fables, when we made known unto you the power and 
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewit- 
nesses of His majesty.'' In other words, he had in mind 
some other men who knew what he knew. James was a 
good man; he saw Christ; he felt His power; he heard 
the Father say, ''This is My beloved Son, in whom I am 
well pleased." There never was a better man on earth 
than John. John was up on the mount; John had his 
ear against the breast of thei Lord and Savior Jesus 
Christ; John had a vision that other men never had. I 
would take John, and Peter, and James as my witnesses 
against any three men that ever walked on God's earth. 
If what they say is not true, whom shall we believe? 

But we have not only got this testimony; we have 
the testimony of another great hero — Paul ; he saw Christ 
and he fought against Christ until God struck him down 
and said, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?" And 
the Lord called to Ananias and sent him to the street 
that is called Straight; and he said to Saul, "Arise, and 
be baptized, and wash away thy sins," and the scales fell 
from his eyes, and he saw as he never saw before; and 
from that time he went out into the world and proclaimed 
the same Gospel he had been fighting against, and the 
same Savior he had been opposing, and tried to build up 
the same church that he had before been trying to tear 
down; and I would say to every one in this house to- 
night, if you have been fighting against the Church of 
God, against the Bible, against things good and holy, you 
have been fighting against the Almighty God and you will 
come out conquered just as sure as there is a God in 
heaven. 

The Apostle Peter refers us to a great many other 
witnesses when he says : "We have also a more sure 



228 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, 
as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day 
dawn and the day star arise in your hearts." He tells 
them that there are men who have been speaking for 
fifteen hundred years about this Savior, whose testimony 
they could take if they did not care to take his. 

He not only had the testimony of Jesus Christ and 
of good men, but he had the testimony of God himself. 
The voice that he heard was not the voice of men, nor of 
angels, it was the voice of the heavenly Father that saith : 
"This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."" 
He heard Jesus ask the qestion, "Who do men say that 
I am?" And who stood up first and said, "Thou art the 
Christ, the Son of the living God," but this same Peter? 
The Apostle Peter heard Jesus proclaim that He was the 
Son of God; he heard the Holy Spirit proclaim it by 
descent on the head of the Master at His baptism; he 
was the man who preached on the day of Pentecost; he 
was the man to demonstrate the power of the Holy 
Spirit; he was the man who saw the fiery tongues come 
down upon the waiting disciples; he was the man who 
preached a sermon that brought three thousand souls to 
the Savior in one day; he was a power because he knew 
positively that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world. 

Right there lies the power of the ministry today. 
When a minister will just hold up Jesus Christ as a 
model man there is no power in it; the truth is, when 
you hold up Jesus Christ as a good man and not as the 
Son of God, it is all nonsense. Jesus Christ was either 
the Son of God, or he was the biggest rascal that ever 
walked on earth. W^hen a man claims to be the Son of 
God, and is not, he is a liar, and a liar is never a good 
man. If you think that Jesus Christ was not the only 
Savior of the world, and say that He was a good man, I 
am glad I was not educated in your home; I am glad 
that my mother and father had better morals; I have 
never been taught to call a liar a good man. Jesus 
Christ, I repeat it, was either the Son of God, the King 
of kings and Lord of lords, or He was one of the greatest 
impostors that the world has ever seen. So you must 



SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 229 

take either one horn or the other of the dilemma; either 
acknowledge that Jesus Christ was the only Savior of 
the world, or put Him down as a character unworthj^ to 
be held up before our children, or in our homes. There- 
fore away with the idea of Christ as an example simply 
of a good man ; it is all nonsense ; He was the Son of God ; 
we have the testimony from heaven; we have the testi- 
mony from good men, and we have the testimony of the 
great Apostle Peter as an eyewitness. The real power, 
therefore, of the ministry must lie in proclaiming, with- 
out a single doubt, that Jesus Christ is the only Savior 
of the world. 

II. The next step in the power of Peter lies in the 
fact that he recognized the Bible as the inspired Word 
of God. While it was a certainty in his mind that Jesus 
Christ was the only Savior of the world, it was no more 
of a certainty than that the Bible is the Word of God. 
*'We have also a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto 
ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth 
in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star 
arise in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy 
of the Scripture is of any private interpretation: for the 
prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but 
holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy 
Ghost." 

1. There you have as beautiful a picture of the 
Scriptures as you will find within the lids of this Book. 
The Apostle Peter plainly declares that the Holy Ghost 
is the author of the Bible. "But holy men of God spake 
as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." Your stenog- 
rapher writes as she is moved by you. When your stenog- 
rapher has finished her letter, dictated by you, it is not 
her letter; it is yours. Now, says the Apostle Peter, 
just so Ave are not authors of what we write. "Holy 
men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." 
The Holy Ghost is, therefore, the author of the Bible. 
"Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eter- 
nal life, for they are thej which testify of Me." "And 
that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, 
which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through 



230 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

faith which is in Christ Jesus." In other words, "All 
Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable 
for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction 
in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, 
thoroughly furnished unto all good works." 

This Holy Spirit has one mind running throughout 
the Bible. There is nothing more evident to the Bible 
student than that the same mind that speaks in the first 
chapter of Genesis is the same one that speaks in the 
third chapter of John, and the same that speaks in the 
last chapter of Kevelation. Any one who will study the 
Bible carefully must discover that this is the Book of one 
mind. Now, pray tell me, where is the man that can be- 
gin a book fifteen hundred years before he finishes it? 
Where is the man that can gather up the words of sixty- 
six authors, or sixty-six books written by half a hundred 
men, having the same mind? And yet I hold in my hands 
a Book that is made up of sixty-six books, and between 
forty and fifty authors, and all these authors tell us as 
one man, this word is not ours — thus saith the Lord. 
Ingersoll used to travel around over the country and say : 
"Is the Bible inspired? Yes. So is Milton; so is Shake- 
speare; so is my almanac.'' Hastings used to answer 
that very nicely : "Yes, Milton is inspired, but where 
did Milton ever say, ^Thus saith the Lord'? Yes, Shake- 
speare is inspired, but where did Shakespeare ever say, 
•Thus saith the Lord'? Yes, jour almanac is inspired, 
according to your definition, but where does your alma- 
nac, six hundred times, as Moses says, say ^Thus saith 
the Lord'?" The Apostle Peter is writing, but he de- 
clares it is not his writing. "Holy men of God spake 
as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." 

He not only knew there was one mind running 
throughout the Bible, and that is what made him a power, 
but . he also knew there is one light running throughout 
this Bible. "'We have also a more sure word of prophecy, 
whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light 
that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and 
the day star arise in your hearts." This Bible says of 
itself, "Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light 



SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 281 

unto my path." The first thing that God said, in the 
first chapter of Genesis, is this, "Let there be light, and 
there was light." This Book has done more to throw 
light into the world than all the other books put together. 
Every word in this world that has ever thrown light on 
the subject of man and his eternal destiny has got its 
light out of this Book. In this Book you will find a light 
shining forward for thirteen or fourteen hundred years, 
telling us the Light of the world is coming. The first 
four books of the New Testament tell us that Light has 
come, and the other books of the Bible tell us this Light 
shall be published to the world; and the last book says, 
I will show you what will happen until the Judgment 
Day; and thus the light shines from the morning of crea- 
tion until the Judgment Day, and the Holy Spirit shows 
thait light shining over every page of the Book, and when 
your dying hour comes, you will not want Shakespeare 
under your pillow; you will not care for Milton in that 
hour; what do you care, when your soul leaps into eter- 
nity, about the old almanac? What you want in that 
hour is the light of the eternal God. That is what made 
Peter a power. 

He kncAv not only that there was one mind running 
through this Book, and one light shining through it, but 
there was one life running through it. "A light that 
shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day 
star arise in your hearts." God begins with the heart 
when He makes a new man. "Create in me a clean heart, 

God, and renew a right spirit within me." When the 
Lord our God said. Let there be light, there was light; 
and when you study the law of God and find out your 
sins, and take your flight to Calvary and say. What shall 

1 do, God speaks to your soul and says. Let there be light, 
and there is light, and when the light shines in on your 
soul, there is life there. In a few weeks to come the snow 
will all melt away, the sun will shine with greater power 
upon us, and when the light comes and dwells longer upon 
the earth during the long days, and the snow is melted 
away, then you will find that the little sprigs begin to 
come out of the earth, the light bringing them life; and 



232 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

as you look into the Bible you will find life in God's 
Word. It is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our 
path. You will find the entire Old Testament is point- 
ing to Him who says, '^I am the Way, the Truth, and the 
Life, and no man cometh unto the Father but by Me.'' 
You will find in the New Testament that this Life stood 
down by the side of death and said. Live, and the dead 
came back to life. You will find that this One who 
called Himself the Way, the Truth and the Life, stepped 
up to the sinners, and forgave them, and took them home 
with Him. Oh, the wonderful Life that runs throughout 
the Word of God! 

2. The i^postle Peter not only knew that the Bible 
is the inspired Word of God, but he knew the Holy Ghost 
always said exactly what He meant. "Knowing this first, 
that no prophecy of the Scrij)ture is of any private inter- 
pretation." When a man reads the Augsburg Confession 
and Luther's Catechism, and this twentieth verse of the 
first chapter of the second epistle of Peter, he cannot 
help but make up his mind that Peter was a Lutheran. 
^^Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture 
is of any private interpretation." If there was any one 
thing that brought on the Reformation, it is the fact that 
God means what He says, and if there was any one thing 
that made a division between Dr. Luther and John Cal- 
vin, it was this, that you have absolutely no right to put 
your own private interpretation on God's Word; that the 
Holy Spirit means exactly what He says; and when it 
came to the doctrine of the Lord's Supper, Dr. Luther 
says. Are you going to believe the Holy Ghost, or Zwing- 
ley? Are you going to believe the Holy Ghost or John 
Calvin? Are you going to believe that "This is My body 
and this is My blood," or are you going to leave out the 
words of the Holy Spirit, and put in the word "repre- 
sents"? What are you going to do about it? What made 
the Apostle Peter such a powerful man is this, he says, 
God has spoken, and God means what He says; and that 
is what I will preach, let the world say what it will. If 
I have a right to step before this intelligent audience and 
say, Here is a chapter that says so and so, but God meant 



SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER. EPIPHANY. 238 

something else; if I have the right to turn to another 
verse and say, It is true that God says so and so, but He 
did not mean it that way, He meant something else, pray 
tell me, what are the people to believe, and when do you 
know you are getting God's eternal truth? I maintain 
when God saj^s hell, He means liell ; when He says heaven. 
He means heaven; when He says repent, He means re- 
pent; when He says there is only one way to heaven He 
means it, and just as sure as you expect to go to heaven 
by any other way than through the Lord Jesus Christ you 
will be damned, as sure as there is a God in heaven. 
This is the truth, and that is what makes powder in the 
pulpit, and just as long as men are going to stand up 
and find fault with the Bible, and try to make them- 
selves appear wise because they think they have found a 
little mistake of the Holy Ghost somewhere, just so sure 
you are going to find that the pulpit is losing its power, 
the church its members, and the people their souls, and 
everything is going to destruction. How shall we fill the 
house of God? The only way I know is to preach the un- 
changeable Word of God in all its purity, and it is a 
power, just as sure as God in heaven is a power. 

God has said some things in this Book pretty hard 
to understand; in fact. He has said some things nobody 
can understand. He has said, Let there be light, and 
there was light, and you do not know today yet what 
light is. He said in this Book that a flood was coming 
that would reach fifteen cubits above the highest moun- 
tain. No man on earth today can understand how the 
water could be that high, and yet the little sea shells on 
top of the mountains tell us the water was there; you 
do not understand it. The people in the days of Noah 
did not understand why there was any sense in building 
an ark out on the dry ground. They did not understand 
in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah how a solid city 
could go down, but God said. It will. They did not 
understand in the days of Isaiah how it was possible for 
a virgin to conceive and bear a Son, and call His name 
Emmanuel, but God said she would. They did not under- 
stand in the days of Zechariah how God could come down 



234 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

on earth and ride a colt into Jerusalem, but God said He 
would. They did not understand in the days when the 
Twenty-second Psalm was written how it should be pos- 
sible that the Savior should come and have His hands 
pierced, and His feet pierced, when the Jews killed men 
with stones ; but God said He would have His hands and 
His feet pierced. When Jesus walked out of the temple 
and they showed Him that large temple and those large 
walls, and He said, Not one stone shall remain on top 
of the other, they said that could not be. When He 
looked around and saAV the Jews, and said the time would 
come when they should scatter all over the world, and 
they should remain a separate nation until the Judgment 
Day, they said. How can that be? 

But I tell you the Holy Spirit means what He says. 
The flood did come; Sodom and Gomorrah did go down; 
Jerusalem was destroyed and the plow turned the furrow 
in the days of Titus where that wall stood; the Jews are 
scattered all over the world as God said they would be; 
Christ did ride into Jerusalem when the children sang: 
Hosannah to the Son of David! Blessed is He that 
Cometh in the name of the Lord!" It was a hard saying 
when God said, "I will not suffer Mine Holy One to see 
corruption." They did not understand how He could 
sleep in the grave and arise again, but He did arise; He 
did conquer death; and so I would have you to under- 
stand that Jesus means what He says through the Holy 
Spirit. 

Therefore, away Avith human opinions about this and 
about that. I have heard men say, "I admire the pastor 
of the First Lutheran church for having the courage to 
say what he believes, but I differ with him in opinion." 
I want you to understand that I have never preached opin- 
ions from this pulpit; it is not a question of opinion; I 
have absolutely no right to stand here and give you my 
opinion, for it is not worth any more than yours; we do 
not come to church to get opinions; I claim that I can 
back up every sermon I have preached, with the Word 
of God, and it is not my opinion nor yours, it is the 
eternal Word of God, and you will find it so on the Judg- 



SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 235 

ment day. I have nothing to take back, and I never will ; 
God does not want me to. 

What is the power of the pulpit? It is the power of 
the Apostle Peter; it is God's Word. Christ is the only 
Savior of the w^orld. Eepent, and be baptized, every one 
of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, and you shall be 
saved, and your household, and that is the only hope. If 
this were my last sermon, as the Apostle Peter felt it 
was his last when he w^rote this epistle, I would say to- 
night, come to the catechetical lectures and study God's 
Word, learn the plan of salvation quickly, before you are 
lost; and then I would say, when you know the right 
faith, stick to it until you die. What we need in the 
present day is more catechetical instruction, better in- 
doctrination of the Bible, in order that we may know 
what we believe, and then stand by it until we die. If 
this were my last sermon I would say, you people of God, 
when you call a minister into this pulpit, if he insists 
on giving you his opinion, put him out just as quickly 
as you possibly can; call a man of God who will not find 
fault w^ith the Bible; who will not find fault with Jesus 
Christ, but hold Him up as the only hope; and the Bible 
as the only inspired W^ord of God; the Word by which 
we live and the Word by which we die ; the Word that will 
show us the way to heaven. May God bless the message 
of the hour to your eternal good is my prayer. Amen. 



SEPTUAGESIMA SUNDAY. 

Paul's Power. 

I Cor. 9 :24-10 :5. 

KNOW ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one 
receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every 
man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. 
Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. 
I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth 
the air; but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection; lest 
that by any means, when I have preacHed to others, I myself should be 
a castaway. 

Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how 
that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the 
sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat; and did all drink the same 
spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed 
them : and that Rock was Christ. But with many of them God was 
not well pleased : for they were overthrown in the wilderness. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved in Christ: 

Last Sunday evening we had the pleasure of listen- 
ing to the power of Peter. I showed 3^ou from God's Word 
that the poAver of that great apostle lay in two things: 
First, that he positively knew that Jesus Christ was the 
only Savior of the world; and, in the second place, he 
positively knew that the Bible was the inspired Word 
of God; and, having settled those two facts in his mind, 
he went into the world with a power that God blessed. 
There is one other apostle who undoubtedly was a su- 
perior of all the rest in many ways, and that was the 
apostle Paul. I shall therefore, direct your attention this 
evening to 

236 



SEPTUAGESIMA SUNDAY. 237 

PAUL'S POWER. 

And may the Holy Spirit give power to bring your 
souls nearer to Jesus, your Savior, Peter's Savior, PauFs 
Savior, the Savior of the world. 

I. I remark that the apostle Paul would have been 
a power no difference what his calling. 

1. The first thought that struck me in reading this 
text was, what would Paul have been if he had been a 
robber. Just imagine a man with all the fire, and all 
the energy that Paul had, a bad man, a thief, in a com- 
munity. Why, there is not a man in American history, 
great as our robbers have been — even a Jesse James 
could not begin to be what Paul might have been if he 
liad served the devil fully instead of his God. Paul would 
not have been one of those sneaking little thieves going 
from house to house and plundering home after home. 
If Pan] had been a thief instead of a Christian minister, 
he would have been at the head of the great movements 
of' the world to rob people. If he had lived in our day 
he would have been at the head of some Standard Oil Com- 
pany ; he would have been at the head of some great trust ; 
he would have been the champion among the world's 
financiers, and he would have robbed the people at the 
greatest rate possible. 

2. I not only see him in the capacity of sin as a 
great power, but I see him even a great man if he had 
been a farmer. It is often said in the country when a 
I)oy is a little Aveak in the back or has not got the ability 
to hold a ploAv, or to stand a good deal of hard work, that 
he will do for a preacher, seeming to think that 
in the pulpit any kind of a back will do; there any 
kind of a tongue Avill do; there any kind of a phy- 
sical structure will do. If you think the apostle Paul 
went into the ministry because he was a weak man phy- 
sically, you are mistaken, and if you think any man weak 
physically will make a good preacher, you are mistaken. 
It takes as much physical force to preach one sermon 
as it does to handle the cradle for four hours; it takes 
as much physical force to work in this church as it does 



238 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

to run a one-hundred-and-sixty-acre farm alone, I want 
it simply understood that if you have got a son who is 
not able to make the best showing with regard to strength ; 
who isn't able to make one of the very best carpenters; 
who isn't able to handle the hardest labor in this world, 
never try to make a preacher of him. We have enough 
of preachers that would not make good farmers, that 
would not make good mechanics, and they make very, 
very poor preachers. The apostle Paul was one of those 
men who went through trials that no physically weak 
man could ever go through with. He tells us he w^as 
whipped by the Jews five times, receiving forty stripes 
less one; in other words, he received one hundred and 
ninety-five cuts across his back, that you and I never 
would have stood; he tells us he was out in the deep, in 
the w^ater twenty-four hours, and yet did not drown; he 
was stoned and dragged out of the city for dead, but 
there was too much vital force in him to die; he arose 
again; he was whipped, and scourged, and persecuted, 
not only outside of the church, but in the church ; he went 
through many trials, sometimes having the very clothing 
torn ofp of his back; out in the winter, freezing, hungry, 
wanting a drink and getting none, wanting something to 
eat, and nothing for him; that man went through trials 
that no man could go through with unless he had the 
strength to do any kind of labor to be done in the world. 

3. The apostle Paul would have been a great power 
as a lawyer. When he and Silas were put into prison, 
having been scourged and their feet fastened in the stocks, 
they began to sing songs of praise at midnight. God Al- 
mighty shook that old prison until the people found them- 
selves loose, and the jailer was ready to commit suicide. 
Paul cried out, "Do thyself no harm; we are all here." 
Paul could have escaped in that moment. No, he would 
not; he remained there, and when the jailer came ask- 
ing, "What shall we do to be saved," he taught him God's 
Word; he taught him that he must be baptized, and bap- 
tized him in the same hour of the night. Not only that, 
we find when the morning came word was sent to him 
by the jailer, Now, Paul you can go. No, sir; I did not 



SEPTUAGESIMA SUNDAY. 239 

put myself here and I do not intend to put myself out, 
and I want you as a jailer to understand that you have 
no control whatever over me. The very moment they con- 
demned me without a hearing they condemned a Roman, 
and I demand of them that they come here themselves and 
lead me out and give me liberty. No man but a lawyer 
could have done that. Paul knew the law, and, knowing 
the law, he made those men his prisoners, instead of being 
theirs. When he stood before Felix and made him 
tremble, he showed his ability as a lawyer. 

As an orator he could have held the highest position 
in the world; as a lecturer he could have gone around 
and won the ears of all the people. Oh, this man was a 
wonderful power. 

4. He was not only a power as a lawyer; he would 
have been a j)ower as a politician. It is said, preceding 
our text: "For though I be free from all men, yet have 
I made myself servant unto all that I might gain the 
more. And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I 
might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as 
under the law, that I might gain them that are under the 
law; to them that are without law, as without law (being 
not without law to God, but under the law to Christ), that 
I might gain them that are without law. To the weak 
became I as weak, that I might gain the weak. I am 
made all things to all men, that I might by all means 
save some." In those words that I have read you find 
one of the most beautiful pictures of a true pastor, that 
can be found in the Word of God. The apostle Paul had 
the ability of working among common men, and when he 
found a weak man, he was weak ; when he found a strong 
man, he was strong; when he found a man versed in one 
line of knowledge, Paul was versed in that line; he could 
always accommodate himself to any kind of a man he 
met, and consequently was a great power as a missionary, 
and he always did that to save souls. All you have to 
do is to put this man in politics, and you have what pol- 
iticians call a "good mixer" — a man that can shake hands 
and win votes anywhere. If Paul had been a politician 
instead of a man of God, he would have carried the office, 



240 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

no difference for what he ran. If in Mansfield, he would 
have been elected mayor, if in Ohio, governor, and he 
would have become President of the United States. In 
his place he was a power, and he would have been a power 
as a politician. 

5. I not only see him as a power in politics, but he 
would have been a power as a detective. ''Know ye not 
that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth 
the prize? So run that ye may obtain. And every man 
that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. 
Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown ; but we an 
incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so 
fight I, not as one that beateth the air." How did Paul 
know about this beating the air? How did Paul know 
all about these races? We have a good many men in the 
present dsij, so good they have never seen a race at all; 
never been inside of a saloon ; never seen a gambling den ; 
never seen the world as it is, and the consequence is that 
they do not know how to preach the Gospel. We have 
some parents who do not know how to raise their chil- 
dren; they have sons, and the very first thing they say to 
them is, If I ever catch you in a saloon, watch out! If 
I ever catch you at a race, watch out ! If I ever catch you 
playing pool, watch out! If I ever catch you doing this, 
or that, watch out ! And it is not very long until the boy 
is watching out, and just waiting an opportunity to get 
away from mother, to get away from father, and if that 
boy does not go to the races, I do not know one who will ; 
if he does not go to the saloon, I do not know one who 
will. The great trouble is so many people do not train 
their children rightly. The apostle Paul went to the races 
to see what was going on ; he went to the Olympian games 
and watched the men, how they would train for months; 
watched their muscles and watched them run with all the 
power within them, and thousands of people from all 
around Rome had come to the nortli portion of Corinth 
that they might see the races, and when they were over 
they brought the winner back with great applause and 
great cries of joy, and put a little crown of myrtle on 
his head, and he went home so proud of that crown that 



SEPTUAGESIMA SUNDAY. 241 

he never forgot it; and then this great thinker said, if I 
can just get men to run like that for the crown of heaven, 
then I have made a point; he noticed that. these men that 
go into the races do not drink anything; they are tem- 
perate; they are very careful not to eat nor drink too 
much; they must win the race, and they must be pre- 
pared for the race; and he applied that to souls, and 
preaclied to the world such a temperance sermon as they 
never heard before. This apostle Paul would have made 
a good detective; they all acknowledged that. Why did 
they send him to Damascus to catch Christians? He was 
one of the best detectives ; he could follow out any clue ; he 
could find a Christian if there was one to be found; he 
knew the world. If my boy had lived, I would have said 
to him, wait until you are twelve years old and I will 
take you to Chicago ; I am going to take you through the 
lowest dives and dens ; I am going to show you the worst 
people in the world; I am going to show you through all 
the saloons, through all the places that I would not care 
to mention at home, to show you the world as it is; and 
I would have made that boy so sick of the lost, condemned 
world, that he never could have been induced to enter 
such places. There is a wrong way and a right way to 
bring up children. You do not want to say, if you touch 
this beer I will whip you; if you touch this whisky I 
will whip you. No. Say, here is whisky; it is a good 
thing in its place but never was made to drink; it will 
make you thirsty ; you might just as well eat salt ; it is a 
good thing for medical purposes, but do not drink it. 
Then take that boy into a room where a man has delirium 
tremens and tell him that is what whisky did, and that 
boy will never touch it. You want to have the detective 
spirit that the apostle Paul had. He was a power as a 
policeman, and when they wanted to prosecute Christians 
they could not find a better man than Paul, and they sent 
him to Damascus to find them. 

6. And I believe, from the description given of him 
in another chapter that if he had gone into the Olympian 
games for the purpose of winning the race, I think he 

16 



242 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

would have won it. A man that could run over the world, 
as Paul did, as a missionary, was no ordinary runner. 
Not only that, but I believe the x4.postle Paul, if he had 
prepared himself for the ring, w^ould have been as great a 
pugilist as we have in this country. He refers to that 
w^hen he says, ^'So fight I, not as one that beateth the air.'' 
Paul would never have missed a man if he had struck at 
him; he would have hit him, and hit him hard. A man 
that could be out in the w^ater for twenty-four hours 
without going down ; a man that could have one hundred 
and ninety-five stripes across his back and never wither; 
a man that could be stoned, and dragged out for dead, and 
rise again, would not find a fist in any enemy's hand that 
would down him. The Apostle Paul was a pow^er. 

II. What then did he do? He took all these powers 
that God gave him and concentrated them into himself as 
a missionary of the Gospel, and thereby proved that he 
was the greatest preacher the world has ever seen. 

1. No one ever felt his Divine call more keenly than 
Saul did; no one was ever more certain of his call. As 
I stated a moment ago, he started up to Dainascus as a 
policeman to persecute Christians; the Lord God knew 
that there is a power; He knew that there is a con- 
scientious man ; He knew that if that man knew the truth 
he W' ould fight for it until he died, consequently He wanted 
to teach that man one thing he did not know, and that was 
that Jesus of Nazareth w^as the Son of God, the One 
prophesied in the Old Testament; therefore He unhorses 
him, throws him down, and cries from heaven : "Saul, 
Saul, wiiy persecutest thou Me?" — and Saul fell into 
another world; Saul realized that he had been mistaken. 
Saul said, "Lord, what wouldst Thou have me to do?" 
"Arise, and go to a certain street that is called Straight, 
and I wall send a man there, and he will tell you what to 
do." In other words, Jesus Christ w^anted to teach Saul 
there that he had to be converted, not by power from 
heaven, but by the Gospel in the hands of man; so He 
sent Ananias to the street called Straight; and to 
Ananias, who went, God said, "Look, behold, he prayeth." 
There you see the policeman on his knees praying God 



SEPTUAGESIMA SUNDAY. 243 

to have mercy on him. His eyes were blinded, and this 
man Ananias tells him the wonderful truths of the Gospel ; 
tells him to arise, and be baptized, and to wash away his 
sins, and there fell from his eyes as it w^ere scales, and 
he saw a new world; he saAv a new avenue for his power,, 
and he started out to preach the Gospel to the world. 

2. Not only Avas he Divinely called — there is no 
question about that — but he was as conscientious as a 
man could be. In this same chapter I would call atten- 
tion to the fact that he could have earned a living in many 
w^ays without being a minister of the Gospel; I would 
further call your attention to the fact that he might 
have been a married man and enjoyed his family like other 
men; I call your attention to the fact that according to 
the Old Testament teaching that every minister of the 
Gospel should be paid for his preaching, but he had made 
such a blunder that he made up his mind he would never 
give the world a chance to say that he w^as in the ministry 
for the money that was in it, and therefore, instead of 
taking a salary, he made tents, he worked and earned 
money at night, that he might go and preach the Gospel 
on the Sabbath day. He was so conscientious that he 
said : "But I have used none of these things : neither 
have I written these things that it should so be done unto 
me : for it were better for me to die, than that any man 
should make my glorying void. For though I preach the 
Gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid 
upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the Gospel!" 
The great Spurgeon one time said to a young man who 
desired to study for the ministry, "If you can help it, 
don't preach.'' That may look like wrong advice, but he 
meant it just as he said it. When a man is Divinely called 
to preach, no power under heaven can keep him from it, 
and so he said to the young man, "If you can help preach- 
ing, don't preach." When the Apostle Paul was con- 
verted, no power in the w^orld could keep him from preach- 
ing. "Woe is unto me if I preach not the Gospel." He 
was so conscientious that he gave his services and his life 
for the ministry. 

3. He was willing to make any sacrifice; nothing 



244 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

was too much for him, no road too stony, no sea too wide; 
the heathen were not too far away for him ; wherever God 
said go, he went. I often think of that little song we sing 
in the Young People's meeting, "I'll go where you want me 
to go," and here we sit and do not go; it is easy to sing 
but harder to do. The Apostle Paul not only sang, but 
he did these things; if God said go to Europe, he went 
to Europe; if He said to go to Macedonia, he went to 
Macedonia; if God said go to Eome, he went to Rome; 
if God said you will be crucified, he said, so be it; when 
God said die, he died; there was nothing too much for 
Paul; he was a power in the ministry, and one of the 
greatest missionaries the world has ever known. 

4. "I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight 
I, not as one that beateth the air." The Apostle Paul was 
a very plain preacher, a very striking preacher ; he never 
said a sentence that did not hit somebody ; when he struck, 
he struck with the intention of hitting something. You 
know sometimes in training these pugilists, they must 
stand and strike in the air, and keep on fighting; to the 
Apostle Paul that looked like foolishness, and it does 
to me when I see young men going to the gymnasium over 
here trying to develop their muscle. In a man's life there 
is so much to do in the way of really doing something, that 
he should make every blow count; there is so much to 
be accomplished for the good of our fellowmen that we 
ought to hit something every time we strike. That is the 
kind of a preacher Paul was, and he struck at himself as 
well as others. Paul calls attention to the fact that the 
world was lost by nature and that he himself must be very 
careful or he would be lost. "Lest that by any means 
when I have preached to others, I myself should be a cast- 
away." One thing that made him such a powerful preacher 
was that he studied his own heart, his own conscience, 
his own soul, and whenever he found himself in the wrong 
he struck at Paul, and in striking at Paul, he struck all. 
Hardly a week passes that some one does not come to me 
and say, hoAv did you know that I did this, and that, when 
the truth is I did not know it until then, but the reason 
I can hit you so well is that I hit myself every day, and 



SEPTUAGESIMA SUNDAY. 245 

■v\'e are just alike; you are thinking just as I am and you 
are acting just as I am ; whenever you hit one man real 
hard you have hit the whole congregation. God knows 
how to find us out. 

5. Not only do we find that he was a very con- 
scientious man, Avhose call was Divine, and a great mis- 
sionary, willing to make any sacrifice, but we find, further- 
more, that he was a man who preached with the wonder- 
ful power of a good doctrine. As far as his doctrine was 
concerned, he was no perfectionist, nor was he an im- 
mersion ist, nor do I find that he was a moralist, nor a 
Universalist. 

I say that this man was not a perfectionist. The 
AiDostle Paul did not say, I do not need to fight any more ; 
he did not say, 1 have reached perfection. No, he said if 
these men will run as they run and fight as they fight for 
a little crown of myrtle, then I must fight and I must run, 
and ye must fight and ye must run, that we receive the 
crown of eternal life, and consequently he laid down the 
doctrine of a true Christian on sanctification. No dif- 
ference how old we get and how much progress we make 
in religion, there is always a day before us that will allow 
us to grow. Walking through the woods with my brother 
the other day he showed me seven or eight trees that he 
had sold. I said, "Don't you know that timber is going 
to be very expensive and that it is a mistake to sell off 
your trees these days?" He said, "You do not understand : 
those trees are done growing and will decay." You see 
I had not thought about that. Whenever a tree stops 
groAving it will decay, and whenever a man reaches a 
point in life that he does not grow any more, he begins to 
decay. These people who are talking about perfection, 
who are so perfect that they cannot get any more so, 
are dying from decay. The thing we must learn as true 
Christians is this, no difference how perfect we get, there 
is a Savior before us more perfect; and I appeal to you 
who are sitting before me to-night, who have been trying 
to serve the Lord, haven't you found every day of your 
lives that there was a growth possible, and that you never 
have attained perfection? And thus you will go on 



246 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

through life, striving to come nearer and nearer per- 
fection, and when jou breathe your last breath, your last 
words ought to be, in the language of this great fighter: 
^^I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I 
have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a 
crown of righteousness." The Apostle Paul never forgot 
that race he witnessed; he never forgot the race of life; 
he never forgot the race of a Christian. May God help us 
all to-night to walk on the path of Jesus Christ, dressed 
alone in His righteousness, being faithful unto death, that 
we may receive the crown of eternal life. 

I said a moment ago that Paul was not an immer- 
sionist. "Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should 
be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, 
and all passed through the sea ; and were all baptized unto 
Moses in the cloud and in the sea.'' 

We hear it said by immersionists that if we are not 
immersed we are not baj)tized, and some people are even 
led to question themselves, whether they had not better go 
down to the river, or to the tank where fifteen or twenty 
others have been in the same water, and be put under. 
I want you to be satisfied in your own minds to-night^ 
satisfied from the Scriptures, that the Apostle Paul was 
not an immersionist. I do not say he did not believe im- 
mersion Avas baptism; I simply mean to say he did not 
believe the word baptism meant immersion and nothing 
else. What is the story referred to in the Old Testament? 
You will understand that when Moses led the children of 
Israel out of Egypt, he at last came to the shores of the 
sea; Pharoah was coming behind with the six hundred 
chosen chariots; the cloud went before them in the day 
time, and at night a pillar of fire, and as Pharoah followed 
He swung the cloud behind the Israelites as a protection, 
and the winds bleAv all that night, and the waters 
separated, and the Word of God tells us distinctly that 
Moses and the children of Israel walked over on dry land, 
with the waters up on either side of them; then, when 
they came across, Moses held his rod over the sea again, 
and the waters came together and Pharoah and all his 
host were drowned. There is no question about two 



SEPTUAGESIMA SUNDAY. 



247 



things : One is that Moses and the children of Israel were 
not in the water; and the other is that Pharoah and his 
host were all immersed, and the only water that possibly 
could have touched Moses and the children of Israel was 
the spray from the walls of water beside them. Now, 
Paul says : 'Mnd all were baptized unto Moses in the cloud 
and in the sea.'' The children of Israel were baptized 
without walking into a drop of water, and he never said 
one word about Pharaoh and the host that followed him 
being baptized, yet we do know they were all immersed. 
If going under water is immersion, and immersion is bap- 
tism, then Pharoah was immersed and baptized. No. 
Paul taught us very distinctly here that baptism may 
mean simpl}' moistening with water that came upon 
them as they came through between the separated 
waters. Another thing we must not overlook, that 
not only were the adults baptized, but all were 
baptized. The Bible tells us that there were six hundred 
thousand soldiers, besides the women and children ; Paul 
says that all of them were baptized; and we are told in 
another place in the Word of God that as they were saved, 
so we are saved by baptism. There are two things taught 
in this text tonight that I want all Lutherans and all 
others never to forget, and that is that there was a baptism 
without immersion, and that all, from the smallest to the 
largest were baptized, and that is good old Bible doctrine. 
I go further and say that the Apostle Paul was not 
a moralist. A great many people in these days think if 
they keep the ten commandments and treat their neigh- 
bors about half decent, that when they come to die every- 
thing will be all right, whether they are members of God's 
Church or not, whether they are baptized or not, whether 
they go to the Lord's Supper or not, whether they have 
faith in Jesus Christ or not; they are moralists. The 
Apostle Paul was no moralist. "And did all eat the same 
spiritual meat; and did all drink the same spiritual drink; 
for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, 
and that Rock was Christ.'' You Avill remember that the 
Children of Israel crossed the sea and went out a few days 
into the wilderness ; they became thirsty and could find 



248 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

nothing to drink, and they murmured against Moses, and 
Moses said, Lord, what shall I do? God said, You go 
and speak to the Book — at another time, strike the Rock 
— and the water will flow. And so he took his rod and 
struck the Eock and the water flowed, and they drank 
that drink. And now, says Paul, that Rock was Christ, 
and the drink they got saved the whole race, Jesus Christ 
is the Rock of salvation, and the Rock of Ages, and you 
will remember that He had to be smitten on Calvary 
before the water flowed that gives us eternal life, from 
which we shall never thirst. You have there the picture 
of the Rock of Ages, our only Savior. The Apostle Paul 
had been a moralist until he heard the voice of this Rock 
from heaven saying, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou 
Me?" So then we have a Rock that after it was smitten 
has given forth the waters from which we must drink, 
and that is our only hope of salvation. Paul was no 
moralist. 

Again I would call attention to the fact that he was 
not a Universalist. "But with many of them God was 
not well pleased ; for they were overthrown in the wilder- 
ness.'' Six hundred thousand soldiers, not to mention the 
women and the children, started across the Red Sea, were 
baptized as they crossed over, and in the desert they re- 
belled against God, and they carried on their rebellion 
until only two out of the six hundred thousand reached 
the promised land, and Moses, because he struck the Rock 
instead of speaking to it, was not permitted to enter the 
land of Canaan. If only tAvo out of the six hundred thous- 
and reached the land of Canaan, I Avouder AA^hy so many 
think we are all going to reach heaven? When the Lord 
Jesus Christ said, "He that believeth not shall be damned, 
hoAv do you expect to go to heaven if you reject Him? 
When the Word of God distinctly teaches, too, that many 
are called but fcAv are chosen, how do you expect every- 
body to reach heaA^en? When the Word says, "Enter ye in 
at the strait gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way 
that leadeth to destruction, and many there be AA^hich go 
in thereat. Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the 
Avav which leadeth unto life, and fcAv there be that find 



SEPTUAGESIMA SUNDAY. 249 

it/' how do you expect everybody is going to heaven? 
When Jesus Christ Himself said the rich man who would 
not even feed Lazarus at his table was in hell and cried 
out that he must have a drop of water to cool his burning 
tongue, how do you say there is no hell hereafter? The 
Apostle Paul would have been the biggest fool the world 
ever saw if he had given his life for missionarj^ purposes, 
if missionaries were not necessary, and if I grant once 
that everybody is going to be saved no difference what 
they do nor how they live, I say the most foolish thing in 
all the Avorld is to build churches. The most inconsistent 
thing in the world is for Universalists to put up a church 
building and pay out their money to save people who 
were never lost. If a man sliould come running up street 
and say, I was just down to the river and saved a man; 
you would say. Where is the river? and he w^ould reply, 
Tliere isn't any, you would think his proper place was in 
a lunatic asylum. The Apostle Paul never struck unless 
he hit something, and if Universalism is not true, the 
harder. you strike it the better, and I want to strike it 
just as hard as I can, because it is doing more to damn 
souls to-day than anything I knoAv of. Grant me a uni- 
versal salvation for the world, instead of belief in Christ, 
and our bo^^s and girls will go to the devil just as fast as 
they can. The thing for us to learn from God's eternal 
Word is that when God speaks he means it. What made 
I*aiil sucli a wonderful power was that he preached the 
truth. He knew that men were not perfect and therefore 
told them to fight for it ; he knew tliat God wanted every- 
body baptized, young and old, and therefore spoke of a 
baptism for all; he knew that people could be baptized 
with water Avhether they Avere put under it or not, and 
therefore said those that Avalked over on dry ground were 
baptized; he knew that people needed to drink of the 
Avater of the Pock of Ages, and therefore called attention 
to justification by faith Avithout the deeds of the laAv; he 
Icnew that many would be lost unless they were saved 
while living, and therefore called attention to the falling 
of many in the wilderness. 

In this same chapter we cannot help but notice the 



250 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

Lutheran doctrine in the Lord's Supper. "The cup of 
blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the 
blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the 
communion of the body of Christ?" I am not here to- 
night to say that Paul was a Lutheran, but I do say that 
Luther was Pauline ; I do say every doctrine that Luther 
taught to the world is exactly what the Apostle Paul 
taught in all his epistles, and if you can show me one 
doctrine in Luther's Catechism that I cannot harmonize 
with the writings of the Apostle Paul, I will give up. 
What I do say is that if ever a man was doctrinal, and 
gave to the world much information, it was Paul. Stop 
and think of the great fact that Paul gave all these epistles 
to the world, with possibly the exception of eight. You 
cannot do better than to read his epistles carefully, for he 
was a power that is felt to-day all over the world. May 
God bless these promises and help us all to think as He 
would have us think ; to act as He would have us act ; and 
to give our hearts to the Rock, which, smitten, will give 
forth the waters of eternal life, is my prayer. Amen. 

PRAYER. • 

O God, our heavenly Father, we thank Thee for the privilege of 
giving Thy Word to these immortal souls. We pray that Thou wilt 
help us to appreciate Thy great gift to the world in giving the Apostle 
Paul to us. Father in heaven, if one man with the grace of God in 
him can so change the very face of the world, and all theology as that 
man Saul did, converted by Thee, what a power we might all be if we 
would simply let Thee do with us as it is Thy will. We ask Thee, 
heavenly Father, that Thou wilt bless the service of this evening hour; 
we pray that we may all drink in these beautiful words, and hold fast 
to them and never give them up. We ask Thee to give us a life that 
is growing. Do Thou help us to fight for right and truth and to defend 
it until we die. We pray Thee to bless us not only as we are standing 
here, but as we go to our respective homes, and may every one in this 
house this evening become a messenger of the Gospel we have heard, 
so that this Word may not only reach the many who are assembled here, 
but through them reach the many that ought to hear Thy Word and do 
hot. Father in heaven, even as one little spark can start a great con- 
flagration, so we pray Thee that each one, as he or she goes home 
tonight, may be a spark of love and truth in that home to bring Thy 
Gospel to every one under each roof ; and we pray Thee that each 
home again may carry the flame to other homes, until all the people 



SEPTUAGESIMA SUNDAY. 251 

shall know the great truth as it is in the Rock that was mitten, through 
whom we obtain the water of eternal life. Hear this, our prayer, for 
the sake of Jesus, who taught us to pray : 

Our Father who art in heaven ; Hallowed be Thy name ; Thy 
kingdom come ; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven ; Give 
us this day our daily bread ; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us ; And lead us not into temptation ; 
But deliver us from evil ; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



SEXAGESIMA SUNDAY. 

Paul's Path. 

2 Cor. 11:19-12:9. 

fOR ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise. For ye 
suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, 
if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you 
on the face. I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been 
weak. Howbeit whereinsoever any is bold, (I speak foolishly), I am 
bold also. Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. 
Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I. Are they ministers of Christ? 
(I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes 
above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews 
five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with 
rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day 
I have been in the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in 
perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the 
heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the 
sea, in perils among false brethren ; in weariness and painfulness, in 
watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and 
nakedness. Beside those things that are without, that which cometh 
upon me daily, the care of all the churches. Who is weak, and I am 
not weak? who is offended and I burn not? If I must needs glory, 
I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities. The God 
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed forevermore, 
knoweth that I lie not. In Damascus the governor under Aretas the 
king kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desirous to appre- 
hend me : and through a window in a basket was I let down by the 
wall, and escaped his hands. 

It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to 
visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ above 
fourteen years ago (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out 
of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to 
the third heaven. And I knew such a man (whether in the body, or out 
of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) how that he was caught up 
into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for 
man to utter. Of such an one will I glory : yet of myself I will not 
glory, but in mine infirmities. For though I would desire to glory, I 
shall not be a fool; for I will say the truth: but now I forbear, lest 
any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that 
he heareth of me. And lest I should be exalted above measure through 

252 



SEXAGESIMA SUNDAY. 253 

the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the 
flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above 
measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might de- 
part from me. And He said unto me. My grace is sufficient for thee : 
for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore 
will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may 
rest upon me. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved in Christ : — 

If there is an}^ one thing the apostle Paul would have 
done, it was to die for the truth. He declares here, "The 
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is 
blessed for ever more, knoweth that I lie not." What a 
glorious thing it would be if ererj man in the world 
todaj' could say that God knows that I lie not. He not 
only tried his best to tell the truth at all times, but he 
always spoke as in the presence of God. He not only re- 
garded it a great weakness to tell a falsehood and to 
exaggerate, but he regarded it as a great weakness even 
to compare the truths which he uttered, with the truths 
of God's Word. In the parable which we heard this 
morning we learned tlie great power of the eternal Word 
of God, what a good seed it is, and how it brings forth 
a harvest unto eternal life if it is sown on good ground. 
The Lord Jesus Christ gave the apostle Paul a wonderful 
revelation about fourteen years before he wrote this 
epistle ; during all those fourteen years he kept that revel- 
ation to himself; he never said a word to his best friends 
about it; in fact, he felt it would be dangerous to say 
anything about it for fear the people would put his word 
on a level with Word of God. In order, therefore, that 
the honor might be given to the Book of Kevelation, he 
kept that great revelation to himself, as stated before, a 
period of exactly fourteen years. When we read this 
lesson we cannot help thinking what a path of life Paul 
had to travel. Last Sunday I spoke to you of Paul's 
Power, and tonight I will call your attention to 



254 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 



and may we, walking on the path that Paul walked, 
walk in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. While this text 
is lengthy, the whole truth may be summed up in two 
thoughts : 

I. Paul's path was a perilous one; and 
II. Paul's path was a prosperous one. 

I. Paul's path was a perilous one. He tells us in 
one of the verses of this text that Satan buffeted him, 
struck the thorn in the flesh until he cried three 
times to God to take that thorn away. In the 
chapter preceding, he calls attention to the fact that 
Satan in his day was transforming himself into an angel 
of light. In other words, the apostle Paul never failed to 
recognize that the path over which he was going was 
perilous because he had to fight Satan every inch of the 
way. He found Satan in the church; in the elements; in 
the world, and in his own body. 

1. He found him in the church. It is said that his 
letters were mighty and powerful, but his bodily presence 
was weak and his speech contemptible. These things 
were said by members of his own congregation. The 
apostle Paul, as we heard last Sunday evening, was a 
man of power. No man lacking physical power could en- 
dure the trials through which he passed, but because he 
was not big, like some men are, because he was a little 
hump-shouldered and not as straight as some men are, 
the people at Corinth began to think, we better get a 
•different pastor; we better get a man that makes a better 
personal appearance, his bodily presence is weak, and as 
•far as his speech is concerned, it is contemptible. These 
things w^ere said by people who were Christians, brought 
to the Lord by the apostle Paul, himself. 

Not only did they say that, but there were false teach- 
ers coming up every day. ^^But what I do, that will I 
do, that I may cut off occasion from them which desire 
occasion; that wherein they glory, they may be found 
even as we. For such are false apostles, deceitful workers. 



SEXAGESIMA SUNDAY. 255 

transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And 
no marvel, for Satan, himself, is transformed into an 
angel of light.-' In other words, there were people in the 
days of the apostle Paul that were just watching for a 
chance to say something about him; they were looking 
out for occasion; they Avanted to compare him with other 
men, and tried their best to get the Corinthians to frown 
on the apostle Paul. He Avas perfectly Avilling to bear 
that as far as he himself was concerned, but he knew^ these 
men Avere not true ministers of the Gospel; he knew they 
Avere not there to bring the truth he had taught, and for 
the sake of the church, and for the glory of God, it became 
necessary for him to defend liioiself ; it became necessary 
for him to fight the devil in the church. 

Not only did he find that some people behind his 
back Avere trying to belittle him, and that false teachers 
were trying to teach false doctrines, but he found even 
among the good people of the church a certain class that 
would tolerate anything, no difference Avliat, that AA^as said 
against him, and he refers to them in the words of our 
text : ''For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves 
are Avise. For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, 
if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt 
hiuiself, if a man smite you on the face. I speak as con- 
cerning reproach, as though Ave had been weak." In other 
AA^ords, the people would say. Look at Paul; the man has 
a weak body, his speech is contemptible ; the thing for you 
to do is to. get a smarter and a better man here to pro- 
claim the Gospel. The apostle Paul, said. You think you 
are Avise; I want to tell you that you suffer these men 
because you are really a set of fools, but I tell you sar- 
castically that you are a bright set of people. I do not 
know of better irony in God's Word than this: "For ye 
suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise." Just 
about as much irony as when Job said to the officers who 
AAxre standing around him reproving him, "Wisdom will 
die with you." It was in the same spirit that the apostle 
Paul said, you aa^ouM let people come right up to you and 
make slaves of you; you will let men swalloAV you; you 
will let men take you prisoners; you will let men stand in 



256 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

your presence and swell up with pride; you will actually 
let men come up to you and slap you in the face, and think 
you are wise, but you stand there like a set of dumb fools 
and let the church of God suffer, and you never defend 
your church ; you never defend me ; I have been away quite 
a while, and have endured and suff'ered, and fought my 
own battles, and done all I possibly could for you, but like 
a set of dumb sheep, you have kept your mouths closed and 
let the wolves come and slap our very church in the face. 
It does seem to me that we ought to ask ourselves the 
question, as a congregation, no difference where we are, 
do we defend the truth as we ought? Do we defend our 
church as we ought? It is one thing to sit here in the pew 
and listen to God's Word; it is another thing tomorrow 
night in some worldly circle to hear some people run down 
your pastor, and stand there like dumb oxen and never 
say a word, even help the world along in saying something 
against the minister, or the Sunday School superintend- 
ent, or the officers of the church. If you are true children 
of God, you ought to stand up and fight for the church of 
your Lord and Master; it is not built on your pastor, or 
on any man ; it rests on tlie Rock of Ages, — there is the 
church of your Lord Jesus Christ, and when you fail to 
stand up and defend those that are working for that cause, 
you fail to defend your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, 
Himself. Paul needed no defense; he was too great a 
man to need any little man to defend him. There are men 
right in our own church council that do not need any 
defense; there are officers in this church that do not need 
any defense; we need not be ashamed of our congrega- 
tion, but there is always some enemy glad to run down 
the best people that live, no difference who they are, and it 
becomes our duty not to let the devil have his own way. 
Paul recognized this on the path of life, and consequently 
writes a very sharp letter and says. Beware that you do 
not consider yourselves wise, and at the same time suffer 
yourselves to be made slaves, to be devoured, to be taken 
into bondage, to let others exalt themselves over you and 
smite you in the face. No man in Mansfield can strike a 
blow at any good church member in this church without 



SEXAGESIMA SUNDAY. 257 

striking at you. No man can attack the service here for 
God. without striking at the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, 
and the devil is back of it all, do not forget that. Do 
not expect to see the devil coming around with big horns 
and cloven feet, standing in your midst, and shouting. 
Watch out, I am the devil ! No. He comes with religious 
talk, his false religion, and tries to devour you, and upset 
everything that rests alone upon Jesus Christ, and Him 
crucified. No wonder the apostle Paul wrote sentences 
like these: "In perils among false brethren"; "Beside 
those things that are without, that which cometh upon me 
daily, the care of all the churches." The apostle Paul 
then stood in a place where he had to fight the devil right 
in the church, and that is what you and I must do every 
day of our lives. 

2. Not only did he fight the devil in the church, but 
also had to fight him in the elements, in the very storms. 
"Thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have 
been in the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of waters." 
So we find, my dear friends, that the same Satan who 
did blow the house and home of Job down in a storm, the 
same Satan Avho tried to wreck the little ship and drown 
Jesus Christ, was the same Satan that tried different times 
to drown Paul in the Mediterranean Sea. Eemember, 
the apostle Paul had not yet passed through that wonder- 
ful storm which brought him to Mileta; that occurred at 
least two years after this. Four times the apostle Paul 
was shipwrecked and thrown out into the deep; once for 
tweny-four long hours he was battling with the waters, 
and perhaps many a time the question came to him, Shall 
I give up and drown, or shall I not? But he kept on 
fighting, realizing that the same Satan that brought about 
the storm on the sea of Galilee, is the same Satan that 
could not bear to have Paul preach the Gospel to the 
world, and he fought for life amidst all the elements, 
and won, to the glory of God. 

3. And not only did Paul fight the devil in the storm, 
but in the world at large. "In labors more abundant ; in 
stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths 

17 



258 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save 
one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, 
thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been 
in the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in 
perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in 
perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in 
the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false 
brethren; in weariness and painfulness, in watchings 
often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and 
nakedness.'' Stop and think of that path ! It just seems 
as if all the poAvers of hell were turned loose and put 
on the path of Paul to see how they might abuse him; 
it made no difference whether Jew or Gentile; whether 
on water or on land; whether he was in the city or out 
in the country; whether it was day or night; whether 
winter or summer, there was not, seemingly, a single place 
on God's earth that Paul could go that the devil was not 
there ; if nothing better, they would whijD him — five times 
thirty -nine stripes on his back; stoned three times; thrown 
out by robbers ; caught and abused and almost murdered ; 
we find him in the summer time almost dying of thirst; 
in the winter time not enough clothing to keep him warm 
— freezing ; if he is in the city, with a room in which to 
stay at night, the soldiers are watching and guarding the 
stairway, and there is no way of escape but to be let down 
in a basket by a rope ; wherever he goes he finds the devil 
trying to conquer him ; the whole world was against him ; 
the civil government was against him; his own country- 
men were against him ; his own friends were against him. 
If any man in the history of the world could say God and 
I are all alone, it was Paul. Oh, it was a perilous path 
he traveled over. 

4. He not only found that Satan was in the world; 
he found the devil was right in himself, trying to conquer 
him, "And lest I should be exalted above measure through 
the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me 
a thorn in the flesh, the. messenger of Satan to buffet me, 
lest I should be exalted above measure." What this thorn 
in the flesh was I do not suppose we will know before 
the Judgment Day. All kinds of conjectures have been 



SEXAGESIMA SUNDAY. 259 

given; some think his eyes were so sore he could hardly 
see; some think he had some physical trouble such as 
Luther himself had, at times so painful that he had to 
shriek for help; no difference what it was, it is generally 
conceded it was some kind of physical trouble, some kind 
of a disease that took hold of his body, and in spite of all 
his work, this disease would at times take hold of him, and 
as nearly as he could describe it, it was like a large thorn 
in the flesh, with Satan striking that thorn, buffeting, 
hitting it with his fist, driving it deeper and deeper, until 
he felt he could stand it no longer, and three times he 
cried out, O God, take this thorn out ! I have been stoned 
and I have been whipped; I have fought the waves in 
the sea; I have battled with robbers at night, but, O God, 
I have never had anything like this thorn! Take Satan 
away, for he is striking it! God, take it away! Help 
me ! Help me ! It Avas a perilous path over which he was 
traveling, but we learn that God allowed the thorn to 
remain. What a blow that is to Christian Science! We 
have in the present day, people who seem to think that 
after all, pain is only imaginary; that after all, we are 
simply mind, and that if we could think as God would 
have us think, we could think all pain out of existence. I 
met a lady in the city of Columbus a few months ago who 
called me to her home, pretending that she had some busi- 
ness to attend to, but she wanted to let me know that she 
was a Christian Scientist, and was trying to make me one; 
it was not very long until she said, "The real truth is that 
pain is only found in people who have sinned and do not 
know how to think. Why,'' said she, "we are nothing at 
all, and consequently there cannot be pain in nothing." I 
never like to say anything harsh to a lady, but after talk- 
ing to her about an hour, I said, "I now fully agree with 
you; I have discovered that you are nothing." These 
people actually think the physical body is only a sort of 
a thing that we imagine, and therefore pain is only imagin- 
ary, and that the way to get well is simply to say, I am 
well, and that is the end of it. If you break a limb, of 
course you just think of the bones and say, They are 
nothing, and put them together. Oh, nonsense! They tell 



260 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

US the reason we have sickness is because we are guilty 
of some great sin. Let us not forget, my dear friends, 
that when the young man was let down through the roof 
at the feet of Jesus to be healed, Christ said to him, "Thy 
sins are forgiven thee,'' and when Christ says the sins are 
forgiven, they are forgiven, but the young man is still 
just as sick as he was before; it was not until the people 
doubted whether He had the right to forgive, that He said, 
"Take up thy bed and walk." The man was just as much 
forgiven before he got up to walk as after he had carried 
his bed. The apostle Paul said three times, Lord, take 
this thorn away from me; God said. No, you keep that 
thorn; My grace is sufficient for thee. Paul was not a 
Christian Scientist, and I want to warn my people today 
to beware of Christian Science! Like all other isms, it is 
trying to rob you of the sacraments. Quite innocently 
people turn to Christian Science, and do not know that 
Christian Science has no baptism, no Lord's Supper, and 
no Christ on Calvary dying for the sins of the world. If 
the devil can only get people to believe that they are Chris- 
tians, and get rid of Christ bleeding on Calvary, then he 
has won the victory, and I warn you to be careful that 
you do not go to dabbling in any kind of Christianity that 
has not got Jesus Christ in it as the Lamb of God that 
taketh away the sins of the world, for just as sure as you 
do, that religion is of the devil, I care not by what name 
it is known. The test of a true religion is Jesus Christ, 
my Eedeemer, my Savior, the Lamb of God that taketh 
away ni}^ sins. I say that for the encouragement of the 
sick. Some of the best people of this church this evening 
are at home with sad hearts because they cannot be in 
the house of God, and I want no angel of the devil in the 
form of an angel of light to step into these homes and 
burden their consciences, and make them believe that if 
they just thought rightly they are not sick at all. When a 
man has a fever, he is sick ; when he has a broken limb, it 
is broken; there is a bone there that is broken, and every 
man knows it, and let us beware that we do not let the 
devil make us believe there is nothing where something 
exists, and that there is something where there is nothing. 



SEXAGESIMA SUNDAY. 261 

II. The apostle Paul liad to fight every inch of the 
perilous path of life, and yet I bring you this day the 
glorious news that it was a prosperous path. If the 
apostle Paul had been told on the day that he was eon- 
verted, that he would have to pass through all that he 
did pass through. Oh, how he would have trembled, and 
tried, like Jonah, to flee away from his God! What a 
beautiful thought it is in Providence that God never tells 
us what is coming tomorrow; and what a beautiful 
thought it is to know that every time we fight one battle 
we get strength for the next. On this path of life the 
apostle Paul was led gloriously by the hand of God that 
was constantly around him, above him, below him, and in 
him. 

1. I say the hand of God was around him. Do you 
suppose the apostle Paul could have passed through all 
these trials if it had not been that the hand of God was 
around him? I see him out in the deep for a whole day 
and a night. Why did he not go down? The arm of God 
was around him. I see him three times in shipwrecks, 
when the vessel sinks and men must flee for their lives, 
and I have no doubt that in those three times some men 
went down to death, but why was Paul saved? The arm 
of God Avas around him. I see them beating him with 
stripes, thirty-nine times — ^Ye times thirty-nine — 
enough to kill any man, but Paul lives on. How does he 
stand it all? The hand of God is around him. I see them 
stone him, and Avhen he is stoned, they take his body and 
throw it outside of the city on a pile of stones, but he 
does not die. The arm of God is around him. I see him in 
the winter, freezing, no hand to give him a garment to cover 
that cold body of his. Why does he not freeze? God's 
arm is around him. I see him in the midst of the church, 
fighting the devil in the church, fighting him in the storms, 
fighting him in the world, fighting him in his own body. 
How does he stand it? How does he, hold out? Where 
does he get his strength? The arm of God is around him 
every day, and whenever he has won one battle, the arm 
of God leads him to the next, and, remembering how he 
won the victor}^ out in the waters for twenty-four hours, 



262 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

he says, what do I care for robbers? and he won the vic- 
tory there. Knowing how he endured when he fought the 
robbers, when he was cold he said, God's arm will keep 
me warm. And thus he goes through life, meeting one 
trial after the other, getting strength every time for the 
next battle, and the more he looks back, and the more he 
sees the battles he has fought, the more glorious his life 
becomes. Did you ever stop to think that the only man's 
life really worth having is the man with the victories be- 
hind him? The soldier who Avent to war and stayed there 
for four long years and came home without ever seeing a 
battle, we have forgotten long ago ; but the one soldier who 
has made more of an impression on me than any other I 
ever saw, is the man who showed me the mark on his fore- 
head where the bullet struck and glanced off ; who showed 
me the mark across his neck where the sword almost 
severed his head from his body; he showed me where his 
right arm had been removed ; and where his left arm had 
been removed ; and he showed me his limb with the bullet 
inside ; and there is a soldier I will never forget ; there was 
a soldier who did not regret at all that he had been to 
Avar. Wherever he went he was asked to tell his story. 
His arms AA^ere gone and his body scarred, but he had been 
loyal, and when he came home he was the pride of the 
nation. Only six men in the United States can say the 
same thing, that they have lost both of their arms and are 
still living. I Avant to tell you the trouble with most of 
us is, that we are cowards; we want to go through life 
Avith never a battle, and we never get strength because 
Ave have not fought the battles. Let us remember, the arm 
of God is around the true soldier of Christ. 

2. Not only around Paul, but above him, was the 
arm of God. "In Damascus the governor under Aretas, 
the king, kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, 
desirous to apprehend me; and through a window in a 
basket was I let down by the AA^all, and escaped his hands." 
There was a time when Paul started for Damascus as a 
policeman to arrest Christians; Paul became converted, 
and Damascus now hated him, AA^ho at one time was sent 
there to arrest Christians. A sjarrison is formed and the 



SEXAGESIMA SUNDAY. 263 

order is given to watch him tonight, to apprehend him, 
put him in jail, and forever settle this question. But 
that night the hand of God comes to him, bringing a rope 
and a basket, and touches the brain of his friends and 
says, think I That night the hand of God came and lifted 
up the window, and placed Paul in the basket, fastened 
the rope securely, and said, Remember, Paul, My hand is 
above you; I will let you down; I will let you escape. 
There in the darkness of the night, Paul runs across the 
country and is free ! Who freed him? The hand that was 
over him. Oh, says some one,, that is all nonsense ; it was 
not God at all; God did not make the basket; God did not 
make the rope ; it was men that did .these things ; it was 
men that saved Paul. Dear friends, there were men on 
that Avail, and there were men down on the ground. Why 
did those men on the ground have their swords in their 
hands, while those at the window had the rope? Where 
did tbat rope come from? Who put it into the mind of 
one man to save Paul, while others were trying to kill 
him? I want you to understand it was God that made 
the basket; it was God that put into the hearts of men 
to save his life; it was God that put strength into the 
hand that held the rope that let Paul dOAvn, and so, after 
all, it is the hand of God above him on this perilous path 
that made Paul's path so glorious and prosperous. 

That same hand has been over you many a day and 
you did not know it; that same hand has permitted you 
to escape many a death trap, and you never thanked God 
for it. 

3. That hand was not onl}'^ over him, but that hand 
of God was also under him. "It is not expedient for me, 
doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations 
of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ about fourteen years 
ago, (whether in the body I cannot tell; or whether out 
of the body, I cannot tell; God knoweth) ; such an one 
caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, 
(whether in th« body or out of the body, I cannot tell; 
God knoweth) : how that he was caught up into Paradise, 
and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for 
a man to utter." It was a wonderful vision that Paul had. 



264 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

Just when it took ])]ace, we do not know, except that it was 
just fourteen years before the day he wrote this letter. 
It was no dream. It made such a wonderful impression 
on Paul that he never could forget it, and yet he never 
dared tell it. He speaks of himself as a man, because he 
did not want to tell them directly that it was himself, but 
we all know who this man was. The probability is that 
it occurred about the time they stoned him. He tells us, 
himself, that he was beaten with rods, and once was he 
stoned. It may be when he was stoned the people picked 
him up and threw him out on that pile of rocks, thinking, 
there lie, you little preacher ; there lie and be food for the 
dogs of the city of Jerusalem ; but they did not recognize 
that when they threw him out on that pile of rocks that 
they threw him into the hand of the Eock of Ages, and 
while his body was lying there that Hand was under him 
and lifted him up, lifted him up into the skies, where the 
birds fly, through the first heaven, lifted him up above the 
bird's flight, past the stars and zones of stars and whirl- 
ing world systems, up, up, past the second heaven; and 
on that same Hand that started with him from the little 
pile of rocks near Jerusalem, that hand of the Rock of 
Ages, he went higher, further than eye had ever pene- 
trated? away up where the angels are in the presence of 
God, into Paradise! We often say, if only our dead could 
come back and tell us how it is over there; we often say, 
why did not God send some one back from beyond the 
veil? Dear friends. He did. That hand that lifted Paul 
up into the third heaven, into Paradise, that same Hand 
left him down again; but remember one thing; Paul said 
that he saw things there, and heard things there, that he 
could not tell on earth. Why, my dear friends, you might 
just as well take Luther's catechism and try to teach a 
drove of sheep as to try to teach us poor earthly mortals 
here about the glories that my boy and your girl, and my 
father and your mother, and our dear friends who have 
died in Christ, are seeing up there in Paradise. But how 
did they get there? The hand of God under them put 
them there; and that is the Hand that led Paul over the 
perilous path and made him prosperous. 



SEXAGESIMA SUNDAY. 265 

4. Not only was the hand of God under him, but 
the hand of God was within him. "And He said unto me, 
My grace is sufficient for thee; for My strength is made 
perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather 
glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest 
upon me." The apostle Paul, as I said before, felt that 
thorn as he never felt anything else. Three times he 
prayed to the Father in heaven in this manner : Oh 
Father, remember me. Thy servant; remember how I 
struggled in the sea a night and a day; remember how 
three times I thought the sea would be my grave ;' remem- 
ber me when the robbers caught me, and how I was 
treated in the cities, in the prisons, how I was whip- 
ped and scourged until my body was covered with blood! 

Father in heaven, remember me when they hit me with 
the stones and my soul took its flight fourteen years ago 
to Paradise! O Father in heaven, all that I could bear 
so easily, but now I have a burden that I can bear no 
longer! O Father in heaven, this thorn! this thorn! this 
thorn ! Take it away, O Father, take it away ! O Father, 
take this thorn away! But the answer comes, Paul, I 
will leave that thorn just where it is; I have lifted you 
up to the third heaven, but for fear you will think on 
earth that you are no man any more, I will keep the thorn 
in your flesh ; I will put you down there and I will let the 
devil strike that thorn in order that you may not forget 
that there is a devil ; I will let him strike hard, but remem- 
ber one thing, Paul, while I will not take that thorn out 
of you, I will put My hand against the point inside, and 

1 will help you to bear it. We will not take this thorn and 
throw it down, and walk away from it, but I will take My 
hand and put it inside of you, and I will take the thorn 
into My wounded hand and hold it, and I will help you 
to bear it, and I will help you to bear that thorn until 
you die. If you die with your head cut off, I will with 
My wounded hand pick up that head and put on it the 
crown of eternal life, and I will take your body and your 
soul and preserve them in these hands of Mine, and I will 
keep you until the Resurrection morning, when I will 
reunite you and bring you in all glory to stand in heaven 



266 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

in the presence of the holy angels, as one who has traveled 
the most perilous path, and the most glorious and pros- 
perous path in life. Paul, Paul, remember one thing: 
My grace is sufficient for thee. 

Dear friends, I have just reached the point where now 
I would like to begin to preach the grace of God, sufficient 
for you and sufficient for me, but it is time to close. 

PRAYER. 

O Father in heaven, we thank Thee that there is no path in life 
hidden from Thee; no path so thorny that Thou hast not traveled over 
it; no thorn so sharp nor so lasting that Thou art not willing to put 
Thy hand against its sharpness, and with Thy grace help us to bear 
the burden. We thank Thee,, heavenly Father, for the life, and the 
struggles, and the glorious victories of the Apostle Paul. And we pray 
Thee, heavenly Father, that Thou wilt help us in this life to find com- 
fort for our own souls in this evening hour. We pray Thee to go 
with us this week in all our duties and may we each hour remember 
that Thy hand is sufficiently strong around us, above us, under us and 
in us, to lead us prosperously over the path of life. Father in heaven, 
remember this evening our public and our private prayers ; remember 
those that we pray in secret that need not be secret, and remember 
those prayers in secret that must be secret because Thou alone canst 
understand them. Father in heaven, may this day bring us twenty-four 
hours nearer to the consummation of that plan so glorious in Thy hands. 
Lord, make us defenders of the truth. Give us the spirit of a Paul, 
sanctified by Thy Holy Spirit on high. Hear this, our prayer, for Jesus 
sake, who taught us to pray : 

Our Father who art in heaven ; Hallowed be Thy name ; Thy 
kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven; Give 
us this day our daily bread ; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us ; And lead us not into temptation ; 
But deliver us from evil; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



QUINQUAGESIMA SUNDAY. 

Paul's Poem. 

1 Cor. 13. 

€ HOUGH I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and 
have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tink- 
ling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and 
understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all 
faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I 
am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods' to feed the poor, 
and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, 
it profiteth me nothing. Charity suffereth long, and is kind, charity 
envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up. Doth 
not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, 
thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; 
beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all 
things. Charity never faileth : but whether there be prophecies, they 
shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be 
knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy 
in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in 
part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I 
understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I .became a man, 
I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly, 
but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know even 
as also I am known. An now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three, 
but the greatest of these is charity. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved in Christ : 

The Apostle Paul was one of the greatest men that 
ever appeared in this world. He was great in every sense ; 
he was great simply as a man ; he was great as an apostle 
and did more than all the other eleven; he was great as 
a Christian ; he was great as a missionary ; he was great as 
a poet. If the Apostle Paul had been a German, he would 

267 



268 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

have surpassed Schiller and Goethe; if an Englishman, 
he would have surpassed Shakesi)eare and Milton. There 
is not one poem in the world that surpasses the thirteenth 
chapter of First Corinthians. Peter was the apostle of 
hope; Paul the apostle of faith, the great theologian; 
and John was the apostle of love, but John never pro- 
claimed love Avith more puritv and with more sincerity 
than Paul did in this thirteenth chapter. We wish there- 
fore that the Holy Spirit may bless the message of the 
morning while Ave dwell on 

PAULAS POEM. 

I. Love's valuation. 
II. Love's operation. 
III. Love's duration. 

I. What is love worth? ^'Though I speak with the 
tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am 
become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And 
though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all 
mysteries, and all knoAvledge ; and though I have all faith, 
so that I could remoA^e mountains, and have not charity, 
I am nothing. And though I bestoAv all my goods to feed 
the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and 
have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." What a valua- 
tion of true love! 

1. First of all we are reminded of the fact that it 
is Avorth more than all eloquence. "Though I speak with 
the tongues of men and of angels and haA^e not charity, I 
am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal." 
There haA^e been men in history who, by means of their 
eloquence haA^e changed the destiny of nations ; men who, 
by their eloquence have decided who sliall sit upon the 
throne and Avho shall not ; there have been men who have 
swayed the audience to and fro like the waves of the sea, 
by means of a gifted tongue, and yet, my friends, if Ave 
had tongues such as men never had on earth, if we had 
the tongues of angels, like tliose that sang on the plains of 
Judea when Christ Avas born, if we had the tongues of the 



QUINQUAGESIMA SUNDAY. 269 

angel that swept over the valley of Sennacherib and slew 
one hundred and eighty-five thousand soldiers, if we had 
the eloquence of those that sing around the throne on high, 
and had not love in our hearts, Ave would be like sounding 
brass or a tinkling cymbal. Brass will make music, but 
you never saw a brass instrument in all your life that had 
a heart in it. Any one may take cymbals and strike them 
together, and make a noise, but after it is all done it is 
only a noise; and when a man stands before his congre- 
gation, or before a public audience of any kind, and simply 
has an eloquent tongue, and no love for humanity, you 
might as well blow through a brass horn, or take cymbals, 
strike them together and make a noise. There is nothing 
in it. The Apostle Paul therefore calls attention to the 
fact that all eloquence amounts to nothing of there is no 
love in the heart of him who speaks. 

2. Again, this love is worth more than great inspira- 
tion. How many mothers of old used to jjray that their 
sons might be prophets. A Pro]Dhet in the days of the Old 
Testament was far greater than a king. Elijah, the 
prophet, stood far above Ahab or his queen ; but though a 
man were a proj)het, if he had not love in his heart, he 
would be nothing. Jonah was a prophet ; he was sent out 
by the Lord God to tell Nineveh that that city must fall; 
when Mneveh failed to fall, because it repented, poor 
Jonah felt sad and sorrowful; he would rather have seen 
that wliole city, with all its women and children, go down 
to death, rather than to be humiliated in his prophecy not 
coming true. We are told here that if a man has the gift 
of prophecy; if God should select him to foretell what 
would happen under certain conditions, that honor 
amounts to nothing if he has no love in his heart. 

3. Not only is it worth more than all prophecy, but 
it is worth more than even the best education. Education 
is a power. ''Knowledge is power," is an old phrase that 
we found in our readers thirty j^ears ago, and any one who 
will look at the difference between ignorance and knowl- 
edge, can at once see what a power it is to have a good 
education. There are men all around us who could wield 
a wonderful power if they had only received the proper 



270 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

education. The old subject that has been discussed in 
many a college hall, "Intellect in rags," can be seen in 
every city. There are intellects, which, if they had been 
properJy developed, could have been a power in any com- 
munity. But suppose a man has a good intellect, suppose 
he has had all the opportunity in the world for a good 
education, and then fails to have love in his heart for 
humanity, what does that education amount to? It is as 
nothing, says the Apostle Paul. 

4. "And though I have the gift of prophecy, and 
understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though 
I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and 
have not charity, I am nothing." We are told by the 
Savior that if w^e had faith like a grain of mustard seed, 
we could say to yonder mountain, be removed into the sea, 
and it would be removed. Suppose we had that faith, says 
Paul, suppose we had the faith to say to a certain moun- 
tain, a tunnel shall go through you, it would go ; suppose 
we had the faith to say that a ship should plow from the 
Atlantic ocean to the Pacific, just as soon as a nation 
has the faith, it can be done. It is done. The United 
States has the faith to say that we are not going away 
around by the Cape, that we can cut off thousands of miles, 
that the Isthmus must be removed into the sea, and it is 
going to be done; but, after all, though we have a faith 
that can remove mountains, though we have a faith that 
can tunnel the Alx)s, Avhat is all that worth if we possess 
not love? Suppose that Strong should be right when he 
says, that after the canal is completed from the Atlantic to 
the Pacific, the surface of the earth shall be changed five 
thousand miles, and the last great battle of the world shall 
be between the Slavs on the one side and the Anglo-Saxons 
on the other; suppose he should be right, that the last 
great battle shall be a thousand times worse than the bat- 
tles we have been reading about between Russia and 
Japan, what good will all the fighting and cutting of 
canals do, if we simply mean murder instead of love, to 
make the world better? 

5. Love is worth more than even the greatest be- 
nevolence. "And though I bestow all my goods to feed the 



QUINQUAGESIMA SUNDAY. 271 

poor, and though I give mj body to be burned, and have 
not charity, it profiteth me nothing.'' There are very few 
people in this world so charitable that they give up every- 
thing they have and themselves remain poor. We have 
men in the present day who are giving great gifts to the 
world, but if you notice closely, their capital is growing 
all the time; they are not giving of their own necessity; 
they are not giving of the principal ; they are only taking 
a part of the interest and giving it to the Avorld to build 
themselves monuments; but suppose there should be a 
man in this world as rich as Eockefeller, as rich as Car- 
negie, who would not only give his interest, but all his 
principal for institutions of mercy, and himself should put 
on the beggar's garments, and go about from home to 
home, having no house in which to live, no money in the 
bank, not the i)rice to stay all night at a hotel, the world 
would say. Did you ever see anything like that? But the 
great Apostle Paul says, if a man were so benevolent that 
he would give up all he had for the poor, if he has not 
love, it amounts to nothing. Dear Friends, the man that 
would give up all he had, if he did not 2.ive it from a spirit 
of love, but from a spirit of selfishness, not to the glory 
of God, but to the glory of himself, though he gives all 
he has, it amounts to nothing. 

6. This love of which I speak is worth more than 
eloquence, more than inspiration, more than education, 
more than even a miraculous faith, worth more than all 
benevolence, worth more than even martyrdom. There 
have been men who laid down their lives for this cause or 
that; there are people to-day who are laying down their 
lives in heathen lands. Did you not read the other day 
how some of those Japanese followed their leader right 
in the face of the mouth of cannon, permitting themselves 
to be shot to death, knowing there was no possible escape? 
They were willing to die for what they considered a prin- 
ciple, and yet, after all, my friends, what sense is there in 
any man standing before a cannon when it is shot off? 
What sense is there in any man simply holding up his life 
and saying, Now take it! And even though we do, and it 
is not for love's sake, love for the Gospel, love for God, 



272 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

after all it is only a kind of selfish way of committing 
suicide — it amounts to nothing. 

II. Not only does this great poem of PauFs show us 
the valuation, but also the operation of this love, and this 
operation, if you will notice carefully, is both negative 
and positive. 

1. Negative. "Charity envieth not; charity vaunteth 
not itself, is not puffed up; doth not -behave itself un- 
seemly; seeketh not her own; is not easily provoked; 
thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity." There you 
have the negative operation of true love. 

One of the first things we hold up before the world 
is that charity envieth not, is never jealous. I need not 
tell you how much jealousy there is in the world. I 
could not if I wanted to. The only person in the world 
that is not an object of jealousy, is the one that abso- 
lutely amounts to nothing. Even a drayman is jealous 
of a drayman that does more than he does. Saloon keepers 
are jealous of each other. Store keepers are jealous of 
each other. Lawyers are jealous of each other. Doctors 
are jealous of each other. Preachers are jealous of each 
other. There is not a man on earth, I do not care who 
he is or where he is, that is a success in anything, but that 
there are others all around who would be glad if that 
man should fail, glad if that one should not succeed. Now 
then, says Paul, if a man has love in his breast, he en- 
vieth not. A man who has love in his heart cannot pos- 
sibly rejoice at the downfall of another, cannot possibly 
feel bad because some one else is prospering. If you have 
love in your heart you cannot possibly find fault with him 
who can lead better than you can lead, who can do busi- 
ness better than you can do it, who can succeed better 
than you can. 

This love not only envieth not, but this love is not 
rash in forming judgment. "Charity vaunteth not itself," 
or, as stated in the margin, "is not rash." How many 
people there are that are always ready to form a judg- 
ment in a moment! The first thing they hear they are 
ready to draw the conclusion that it is true, and they are 
glad it is true, and therefore they will now condemn the 



QUIXQUAGESIMA SUNDAY. 273 

inau unheard. If there is anything in the Avorld that is 
unjust, it is to take a man and hang him to the first tele- 
phone pole because he is supposed to be guilty of a crime. 
The laws of every country demand that criminals have 
a hearing and thej^ be not condemned unheard, but in our 
daily lives we are condemning people imheard all the 
time. The first little remark we liear is accepted as true, 
and without any iDersonal investigation whatever, we con- 
demn the man. Love cannot do that. True love will al- 
ways treat another as one would wish to be treated. How 
would 3^ou like to have every little gossip that goes around 
condemning you be accepted as truth itself? We say 
condemning you to be accepted as truth itself. 

We say again, this true love vaunteth not itself. 

It is not puffed up. Hoav could love be puffed up? 
And yet we find many such people all around us. We 
need not go very far to find them. Lay your hand on 
your own breast and you have found the first one that 
naturally is considerably puffed up. Every little success 
tends to make us proud, and whenever we are full of 
pride ^ye are ready to take a fall. True love never takes 
any glory to itself. True love, when it meets with suc- 
cess, gives the glory to God. True love cares nothing for 
flattery, and very little about rebuke. True love does 
its duty, and when it has done that, does not care one 
way or the other personally what the world thinks. When 
we use that word, "I do not care," we never mean as to 
what people do, or how they accept this truth, but it is 
simply a personal declaration that when we have done 
right we do not care whether the world flatters us, or 
whether the world rebukes us, it is right, and right re- 
mains right forever. Love is not puffed up. 

Again, love doth not behave itself unseemly. Some 
people think the only way to be truly polite is to buy 
some good book on etiquette, then read the rules, just 
how to act when somebody comes, and just how to act 
when they go aAvay: just how to act in public, and how 
to act in private, and we never see one of these students 
of an etiquette book, but that we think, the Lord have 
18 



274 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

mercy ou them! Oh, that they had love in their hearts, 
then they would always know just how to act. It is said of 
Robert Burns that he was the most polite man that Eu- 
rope ever had. Eobert Burns never read any book on 
etiquette. Kobert Burns never paid any attention to the 
actions of other people. Robert Burns loved the mice, 
and sang- of tlie mice; lie loved the flies and sang of the 
flies; he loved the little insects, and sang of them; he 
loved tlie little flowers, the daisies, and sang of them; he 
loved everything that God's hand ever touched, and he 
was so filled with love that he always acted just right, 
no diiference where you found him. He knew how to act 
on the farm; lie was the plowman's poet. He knew how 
to act because he loved, and love never makes very many 
mistakes — doth not beliave itself unseemlj'. 

Love seeketh not her own. Love is never selfish. 
Some people seem to think they are unselfish when they 
try to grasp as much of this Avorld as they can, and do 
not take of their oAvn and give it again. We have two 
kinds of very great selfishness in the world : The one 
is the kind that wants everything and holds to it; the 
otlier is the kind that wants as much as possible, and 
gives a little at a time to others. True love does not 
even make use of the opportunity of getting all that it 
can get. True love, I say, in the heart of man is not 
Avilling to accept everything that it can and call its own. 
The Lord Jesus Christ owned the heavens and the earth. 
He miglit have kept all those tilings as His own, but 
notice the grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, 
ho^^' He became poor that Ave through His poA^erty might 
become rich. The man that has IGO acres of land and 
wants to grasp another farm here and another farm there, 
witli tlie intention of getting that and holding it as his 
own, is selfish. The man that reaches out and gets eA^eiy- 
thing he can get, Avhether it is capital or ground, is sel- 
fish. The only truh^ unselfish man in the Avorld is the 
on(^ that might get more and more, and Avill not even 
take it, — the man that might grasp his thousands, but 
is satisfied Avith his hundreds, — the man that might OAvn 
what rightly belongs to his neighbor, but instead of that 



(JinNQUACJESIMA SUNDAY. 275 

says, No, it inigiit be my own, but I will let it be. — 
SeeketU not her own. It does not say, Keepeth not her 
own, but Seeketh not her own. 

How man^' people there are in this Avorld that have 
not homes of their own, that might have had millions, 
that might have grasped here and there, but tliey see that 
life is more than sim]3ly a little dirt, that it is more than 
simply buildings, tliat it is more than sim]3ly bank ac- 
counts. The greatest lives that can be lived in this^ Avorld 
are those that Avant enougli to eat and enough to Avear, 
enough to do good liere and there, that see opportunities 
for grasping but let the opportunity go, not because it 
is not right to have Avhat God might put into our hands, 
but because Avhen there are two opportunities before us, 
and the one is good and the other is better, there is only 
one right thing to do, and tliat is to grasp the better and 
let the good go. It does not take a A-ery deep man to 
see that life is more than simply to grasp things; that 
life is more than simply to own things. It is more blessed 
to give than to receive, and sometimes it is more blessed 
not to take than to take. We Avant to find the real defini- 
tion of love this morning. LoA^e seeketh not her OAvn. 
Love only takes Avhat it can use for God's glory, and does 
not take eA^erything tliat it might possess. 

Love is not easily proA^oked. Some people are pro- 
A^oked at everything they hear. Some people cannot sit 
down and listen to a sermon, but they get half angry, 
and go home, and grumble and groAvl on the streets. 
Some people cannot go through a simple business trans- 
action Avithout having a fight on hands. Some people can- 
not be rebuked for anything but their temper arises and 
they are angr}^, ahvays provoked. If there is anything 
in the Avorld a man ought to tr^^ to get rid of, it is an 
uncontrolled temper; it is this thing of always getting 
provoked at everything he hears. Love has charity; love 
listens; love wants to be rebuked at times in order to be- 
come truly humble; love is glad to see the two sides of 
every question; love Avants instruction; love, after all 
is done, keeps cool, and says, I will make the best of it. 
Let us be very careful that we do not let that spirit which 



276 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

is not from above, but from below, rule in our hearts. 
Let us rather have love. 

Again, Love thinketli no evil. How many people 
there are that are constantly suspicious, wondering 
whether this man is moral, wondering whether this wo- 
man is just as good as she ought to be, wondering whether 
this is just right and that just right, and they know 
nothing; all they know is that they have seen somebody 
talk to somebody, or seen somebody in somebody's com- 
I)any, and Avhen one is lively, they say that is a great 
sinner, and when one stands back in the corner and has 
nothing to say, that there is a great saint ; but mark what 
I tell you, the man that stands in the corner, never hav- 
ing very much to say, the Avoman that sits around and 
hasn't Diuch to say, those are the very people you can 
suspicion if you are going to suspect anybody; they are 
the ones that are going to sin a great deal more than 
those who are talking and having their pleasure. Do 
not misjudge people. Do not be suspicious. If 3^ou have 
any love in your heart, consider ever^^ person innocent 
until proven guilt}'. Consider every j)erson moral until 
you know they are not. Consider everybody good until 
they are proven evil. We are living in a time when the 
world considers a man guilty until he is proven innocent, 
and that is a damnable principle. That is a principle 
that will ruin any church; that Avill ruin any home; that 
Avill ruin the morals of all people. What right have I 
to think my brother is anything but a good man until it 
is demonstrated that he is bad? What right have I to 
think that any woman in the world is evil until it is pos- 
itively known that she is not good? For my part I have 
always believed that there are thousands and thousands 
of good Christian men all around us; I have always be- 
lieved that the world is full of good, virtuous women. If 
I believed that every man on earth is a bad man, he would 
have a perfect right to draw the conclusion that I am bad. 
Love must be charitable and love must consider innocent 
everything that is not known as guilty. Love thinketli 
no evil. 

Love rejoiceth not in iniquit>'. There you have the 



QUINQUAGESIMA SUNDAY. 277 

reason why so many people are constantly feeding upon 
suspicion, constanth^ considering people guilty when they 
are innocent, because they rejoice in iniquity. There are 
some people absolutely not happy unless they can hear 
of some terrible crime that has been committed, unless 
they can run from house to house and gossip about the 
fall of this woman or that man; they do not want the 
things good, and holy, and right. True love rejoiceth 
not in iniquity. True love mourns when people fall. True 
love feels sad Avhen people go wrong. True love rejoiceth 
not in iniquity. There, dear friends, you get the nega- 
tive view of true love, as the great poet Paul sang in this 
Avonderful poem. 

2. This operation is not only negative, but it is pos- 
itive. Love strikes out both ways and reaches in all di- 
rections. There is one verse in the Bible that has been 
very often misquoted, and we cannot blame the people, 
because the first translation was not right. I suppose 
every one of you can quote it : ^'We love Him because 
He first loved us." You find it in the catechism, you find 
it in King James' translation. How it ever got there I 
do not know; it is not in the original; it is not in the 
authorized version. The correct translation of that verse 
is, ''We love, because He first loved us" — not "We .love 
Him." I will grant that it is correct to say that we even 
love God because He first loved us, but it is all wrong 
to say that we love Him only, because He first loved us. 
The real truth that the Lord God wishes to teach us is 
this, that God in heaven loved us, and because He loved 
us we love, not only Him, but we love everything. We 
loVe because He first loved us. Edward Irving at one 
time walked into a room where a very sick boy was lying 
near the gate of death; the boy Avas too sick to talk to 
very long. Edward Irving had the good sense to walk 
in and lay his hand upon the feverish brow of the dying 
boy, and said "My boy, God loves you," and then walked 
out of the room. That boy lay there for hours meditat- 
ing upon the message of Edward Irving. At last he raised 
up in his bed, another move and he stepped out on the 
floor, stood up in the presence of his family and said, 



278 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

"God loves me! God loves me!-' And not only did that 
boy get well, but there was created in his breast a new 
life. ''God loves me!" And he went out into the world 
and became a power. Why? Because there Avas not any- 
thing any more that he could not love, because God loved 
him. The secret of tliis beautiful poem is that Paul 
recognized that what God did for Saul made Paul love 
everytliing, and what made Paul love everything, should 
make you and me love everything. In other words, this 
loA^e is not onh^ negative, it is positive. 

''Charity suffereth long." Look at Christ. Oh, how 
He felt the punishment of His disciples! How He bore 
with the ungodly world! How He patiently waited! 
Look at the apostle Paul. How they whipped him; how 
they -scourged him; how they did all they could to kill 
him, but he endured it all. Why? Because he loved the 
hand that threw the stone to kill him. He loved the hand 
that wielded the lash across his back. Why? We love 
because He loves us. 

Charity suffereth long, and is kind. Oh, what a 
power there is in kindness! And I sometimes wonder 
why it is that we are so dumb as not to see that. We 
think if we can say something ugly to some one that we 
have won a victory. We think that if we can show some 
ungodly act, that that is revenge, that that is power. 
There is no power in the world so great as true kindness. 
What a power a church like this could be if every mem- 
ber would spend every day looking around to see if he 
could not say something or do something that would 
cheer some broken heart. Oh, what a power there is in 
kindness! I tell you, a man will never forget the kind 
act you do him; he cannot forget it. That is love. Love 
has eyes in all directions. Be careful that you do not 
form the habit of walking on the street, seeing no one; 
be careful that you do not form the habit that you do 
not see your next door neighbor suffering, that you never 
see when there is nothing on the table of your neighbor. 
Be careful that you are not walking around in the world 
with your eyes closed. Look for an opportunity to say 



QUINQUAGESIMA SUNDAY. 279 

something, and do something that will make the world 
better. That is love. 

Love rejoiceth in the truth. Nicodemus came to 
Christ at night because he wanted the truth. He found 
the truth; he rejoiced in it, and Avhen Christ was cruci- 
fied, he took the body and laid it in the grave. There was 
nothing he would not have loved to do for his Master, 
because he rejoiced in the truth. How mam^ people we 
have in the present day that do not want the truth ; they 
do not want that which strikes them. I hear it said every 
day b}' people, "I love the truth. I want something that 
strikes me." Nine times out of ten the people that say 
that, take offense when you strike them. The real truth 
is that very feAA' people love the things that hurt, but 
nevertheless, if we have love in our hearts as we ought 
to have it, we want the truth at any cost. May God help 
us to have that disposition of mind that we want every- 
thing investigated. God help us that eyerj plant which 
He hath not planted shall be rooted up, and everything 
that He has not planted needs rooting up, needs investiga- 
tion from all sides, and that is what love will do. 

"Bearetli all tilings." Just see Avhat Christ bore be- 
cause He loved the world! Just see what Paul bore be- 
cause he loved the world! Just see what Dr. Luther en- 
dured in the 16th century because he loved the world! 

^'Love beareth all things and believeth all things." 
Not the things the devil says and the things the liar says, 
but believes everything that God says. When God speaks, 
love says it must be true; it cannot be otherwise. Love 
says, take God at His word. If there were a better way 
to say what ought to be said, God would have said it. 
When God says, ^'This is My body," He means it. When 
He says, ^'This is My blood," love says, believe it because 
God has spoken it. When God says, ''Thy sins are for- 
given thee," believe it. When God says, "Repent," be- 
lieve it. When God says there is a heaven, believe it. 
When God says there is a hell, believe it. Love never 
will doubt the*^ Word of God. 

"Hopeth all things." We are taught in the Word of 



280 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

God that all things work together for good to them that 
love God. If you have that love of God in your hearty 
do not complain if you are sick. Do not complain when 
death comes into your home. Do not complain if you have 
done all you can to keep the old home and it gets aT^ay 
from you. Let it go. There will be some good in it some- 
where. Love hopeth all things. 

Love '^endureth all things." No difference what 
comes, be it friend or foe, be it bright and sunny or dark 
and stormy, whatever comes, says Paul, we will endure 
it all, because we have love. 

I tell you, my friends, this poem is not the result 
of a fifteen minutes' thought; it is not the result of the 
life of a da}^; it is a whole life of a great man under 
the hand and in the hand of a great God, bubbling forth 
the mighty springs of love in the heart. 

III. Let us notice the duration of this love. ^'Charity 
never faileth : but whether there be prophecies, they shall 
fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether 
there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know 
in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which 
is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done 
away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I under- 
stood as a child, I thought as a child : but when I be- 
came a man, I put away childish things. For now we 
see through a glass, darkly, but then face to face; now 
I know in part, but then I sliall knoAv even as also I am 
known. And now abideth faith, hope and charity, these 
three, but the greatest of these is charity." 

Charity never faileth. Love lasts. Oh, Avhat a beau- 
tiful theme! The immortal soul wants something that 
will last. All around us are things that are not going to 
last. In this Book we have some wonderful prophecies, 
but they have been fulfilled. These prophecies are not 
needed forever. They will not last. 

On the day of Pentecost God gave the apostles 
tongues with which to proclaim the Gospel to all nations, 
but, my friends, there is a time coming when we Avill not 
need all the languages am^ more. You will find no Greek 



QUINQUAGESIMA SUNDAY. 281 

language spoken to-day correctly on earth. The Latin 
language is vanishing. Many languages of a thousand 
years ago are not heard any more. Our own mother 
tongue is vanishing. Some of your parents could not have 
talked English; some of your children cannot talk Ger- 
man to-day. If the grandfathers were living the grand- 
children could not talk to them. Languages vanish. 
Tongues vanish. Knowledge vanishes. The love of God 
is older than language, and the love which we are to have 
in our hearts will last long after knowledge is gone. 

You seem to thing that knowledge lasts? Why, no, 
it does not. During the past century nearly all the in- 
ventions in the world were discovered, but if you were to 
say that in the present century we are going to use the 
inventions of the last century, you would be mistaken. 
There are foundries where you will find the iron piled 
up high of machines that Avere made twenty-five years 
ago that cannot be used any more. We read in our mag- 
azines to-day that the steam engine will soon be a thing 
of the past. It Avas the glory of the 19th century. Simp- 
son, who discovered chloroform, was heralded to the 
world as a great scientist. His own neighbors 10 
years later said, take the book out of the colleges; it 
isn't worth anything any more. Knowledge is vanish- 
ing. Not many years ago an old doctor supposed he had 
made a Avonderful discovery, that you could take poison 
out of a calf and put it into a man, and keep him from 
getting the smallpox. That man Avas given a trip around 
the world and lieralded as the very image of knowledge. 
To-day Ave discoA^er that the cells of coAv-pox and of can- 
cer belong to the same family, and you are wondering 
why there are so many cancers and so many diseases 
among the people. It Avill not be ^Ye years longer until 
the world Avill Avish that Dr. Jenner has never been born. 
KnoAvledge is vanishing. W^hat we know to-day will pass 
aAvay in ten years from now, but love abideth forever. 
Oh, notice the duration of this love! Even longer than 
all knoAvledge and science. "For we know in part, and 
we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect 



282 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. 
When I was a child I spake as a child, I understood as 
a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man 
I put aAva}^ childish things. For now we see through a 
glass, darkly, but then face to face; now I know in part, 
but then I shall know even as also I am known.'' And 
to-day, though we think we are men, Ave are only chil- 
dren. What Ave know to-day Avill be considered child's 
play in eternity. 

All that we knoAv to-day will vanisli, even our present 
sight. ^'For uoav aac see tlirough a glass, darkly, but then 
face to face.'' This morning Ave thank God for our eyes; 
Ave are so thankful that we can read His holy Word; we 
are so thankful that Ave can sing the songs of praise. If 
you and I should be struck blind this morning, Oh, how 
sad we Avould feel, and yet, my friends, these eyes of ours 
shall see in the presence of God in such a way that our 
present sight is as blindness. Present sight shall vanish 
away, but love ncA^er. 

And noAv abideth faith. Faith Avill last longer than 
knowledge ; faith will last longer than prophecy, but there 
is eA^en a time coming Avhen faith Avill be needed no more. 
When you and I stand before our God on the Judgment 
Day, there Avill not be one Avord said about faith. 

Hope AAdll last a long, long time. As long as there 
is life there is hope. But when the Judgment Day is 
past for those that are lost, for the damned, there Avill 
be absolutely no liope any more. It is gone forever. LoA^e 
will never die. 

And now abideth faith, liope, and cliarity, these three, 
but the greatest of these is charity. The greatest of these 
is love. Why? Because faith must die; hope must pass 
away, but for all .eternity love must reign, as long as there 
is a God, for God is love, and only Avlien Ave let that love 
reign in our hearts will Ave become cliildren of God. The 
thought came to me as I read this beautiful x>oem over 
and over, and prayed and meditated on it, I believe I 
know why it is such a beautiful poem. I believe I knoAv 
AA^hy Paul Avrote it so Avell. Because he dipped his pen 
into the blood of Christ On Caharv. Amen. 



QUINQUAGESIMA SUNDAY. 283 

PRAYER. 

Lord, our God, do Thou give us a portion of that love in our 
hearts today that is worth more than eloquence, that is worth more than 
inspiration, that is worth more than education, or than even benevolence; 
that is worth more than even martyrdom without true love. We pray 
Thee, our heavenly Father, that Thou wilt help us to practice this love. 
We gain strength to walk by walking; we learn to speak by talking, 
and O God, do Thou help us to increase this love by loving, and by 
loving with Thy eternal love. We pray Thee, O God, that Thou wilt 
help us this morning to exercise this love in the church, in the home 
and in the State ; and while we are exercising this love, let us pray 
to Thee for more love, in Thine own prayer : 

Our Father who art in heaven; Hallowed be Thy name; Thy 
kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven; Give 
us this day our daily bread ; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us ; And lead us not into temptation ; 
But deliver us from evil; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



FIRST SUNPAY IN LENT. 

Paul's Plea. 

2 Cor. 6 :1-10. 

'jrMW E then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that 
mtlB ye receive not the grace of God in vain. (For He saith, I 
have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salva- 
tion have I succoured thee : behold, now is the accepted time ; behold^ 
now is the day of salvation). Giving no offense in anything, that the 
ministry be not blamed : but in all things approving ourselves as the 
ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in dis- 
tresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, 
in fastings ; by pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, 
bv the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the Word of truth, by the 
power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on 
the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report; as 
deceivers, and yet true ; as unknown, and yet well known ; as dying, and, 
behold, we live ; as chastened, and not killed ; as sorrowful, yet alway 
rejoicing; as poor, 3'et making many rich; as having nothing, and yet 
possessing all things. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved in Christ : — 

This is the first Siinda}^ in Lent. I wish you 
could hear the apostle Paul instead of me during this 
Lenten season. I have often thought I should like to hear 
him who said, "I am determined to know nothing among 
men but Christ and Him crucified/' preach a sermon on 
the sufferings and passion of Jesus. The apostle Paul 
was well versed in the Old Testament. He knew the story 
of the fall of man and of his determination to get away 
from the true and living God. He knew the story of the 
sacrifices which were types of the promised Savior. He 
knew the story of the uplifted brazen serpent, which was 

284 



FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT. 285 

only a type of Jesus who should be lifted up on Calvary. 
He knew the stubborn Israel as well as any man that 
ever lived, because he himself was one of them, and he 
knew Avhat the grace of God had done for him. He 
knew that every man on earth needed salvation as much 
as he did, and therefore, he gave up all of this world that 
he might become an ambassador for the glory of Christ. 
"God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, 
not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath com- 
mitted unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we 
are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech 
you by us ; we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled 
to God." In this last word you find the burden of the 
plea that Paul made to a dying world. Be ye reconciled 
to God! And I might cry out right now, to you as an 
individual standing before me. Are you reconciled with 
God? Have you made peace with your God, through the 
Lord Jesus Christ? 

THE PLEA OF PAUL. 

Paul's plea was made in behalf: 

I. Of souls. 
II. Of the Church. 
III. Of the truth. 

I. Paul's plea for souls. "We then as workers to- 
gether with Him, beseech you also that ye receive not the 
grace of God in vain. (For He saith, I have heard thee 
in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I suc- 
cored thee ; behold, now is the accepted time : behold, now 
is the day of salvation"). If there ever was a time, my 
friends when people ought to think of the salvation of 
their souls, above any other time, it is the Lenten season. 
In this season of the year the Church of God all over the 
world is considering the great passion and suffering of 
Christ on His way to Calvary and on the cross, and if it 
is a good thing to set apart a day to commemorate the 
birth of the father of our country, or to set apart a day 
in commemoration of the Declaration of Independence, 



286 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

how 11 inch more should it be the duty of the Church of 
God to set apart a season of the year when we shall say 
farewell to the world, and meditate on the awful suffer- 
ings of Christ, that we might have eternal life, and when 
I speak of a passion season, and a season set apart for 
the purpose of meditating upon the crucifixion of Jesus, I 
do not mean that the balance of the year Ave should become 
worldly again, or that we should go back and away from 
that cross again, but I do mean to say that we ought to 
spend forty days in a year meditating upon the cross and 
upon Christ thereon, so that the whole year Ave may live 
nearer to Jesus. I, therefore, beg of you as a congrega- 
tion, do not sit at home on ThursdaA^ cA'Cning as if you 
did not knoAV that the house of God is here. I beg of you, 
do not stay away from the best serAice that the Church 
of God can give, when it holds up the passion of Christ. 
I make a special plea Avith the council of iua^ church, I 
beg of you, do not get careless. I haA^e rebuked you, I 
liaA^e begged of you, I would like to plead Avith you tonight, 
standing by the cross of Jesus; I say I beg of 3'Ou, by the 
cross of Jesus, stand close to your church and to your 
Savior, and meditate on the aAvful sufferings of Christ, I 
make a plea for souls and — 

'^ . . . . beseech you also that ye receive not the grace 
of God in A-ain." You know what it means to receiA^e 
bread in A^ain. If a hungry man comes to your door and 
you giA^e him bread, and he throAvs it to the dogs, he has 
receiA^ed it in vain. If a man is dying of thirst, and you 
giA'C him the water, and he spill's it out, he has received 
it in vain. If a man who is begging receives money for 
the support of his family, and goes down to a saloon and 
drinks until he is intoxicated and robbed of the gift that 
he received, surely he received that gift in vain. If salva- 
tion is offered to you tonight and you refuse to accept it, 
you receive the grace of God in A^ain. Paul's plea to a 
dying world Avas, Do not, as an immortal soul that might 
be saA^ed, hear the Gospel and reject it, and continue to 
reject it, for if you do, you are lost foreA^er, and the grace 
of God has been given to you in vain. 

He not onlv savs that some people will hear the Gos- 



FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT. 287 

pel, and hear it and hear it, and at last be lost and 
damned, but he says that some people who have accepted 
Christ get careless and reckless, and they, too, receive 
the grace of God in vain. I picture before my mind 
tonight a young man who comes to catechetical instruc- 
tion, prepares himself to hear the Word of God, under- 
stands it and promises upon his knees before the altar 
to be faithful to his God until death, partakes of the bread 
and wine, and in God's mysterious way receives the body 
and blood of Christ, after the Sunday School closes hears 
the preaching of the Word, but sometime or other in his 
life he finds out that there is a path of sin which he would 
follow, and the more he follows that the less he wants 
the light; the more he follows in the footprints of Satan, 
the less he wants to hear of the Church; he drops out of 
the Sunday School class, he drops out of the Church serv- 
ice; he now, instead of coming up and shaking hands 
with his pastor, tries to avoid him; you can see him no 
more in sacred surroundings; he is going to destruction. 
He is sick and dies; his soul is lost. He has received the 
grace of God in vain. Paul made a plea for men not to 
receive the grace of God in vain, either by never accepting 
Christ, or, having accepted Him, by finally rejecting Him. 
There are others again who receive the grace of God 
in vain by putting off from day to day what ought to be 
done at once. '^I have heard thee in a time accepted, and 
in the day of salvation.'' There is a day to be born ; there 
is a day to be born again. There is a day to be saved, 
and that day lies somewhere between the hour of birth 
and the hour of death. That day is offered to every man. 
It does not come before birth; it cannot come after the 
words are said, "Ashes to ashes and dust to dust." Paul's 
plea was to living men not to pass by that day of salva- 
tion when offered to them, lest they receive the grace of 
God in vain. And how often we must see men putting 
off from winter to winter, and from season to season, 
what ought to be done today. It may be there is some 
one listening to me this night who thinks I am a little 
severe or in bad order, and making my plea too strong, but 
ir>v friends, I have been taught from my mother's lap 



288 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

that God's house is God's house; I have been taught from 
my mother's knees that if I cannot behave nij^self in any 
church I must stay at home; I have been taught from 
my mother's knees that salvation is worth more than all 
the world, and consequently I made the plea, as Paul 
made it, be careful how you act in God's house; be care- 
ful not to consider that this is simply a meeting-house. 
It is a place where a plea comes from a man as an ambas- 
sador from God, pleading with you, Be ye reconciled with 
God. And that is nothing to laugh at; that is nothing 
to put off from day to day, for remember, when a man 
makes such a plea, he makes it as in God's own presence. 
^'Now then, Ave are ambassadors for Christ, as though 
God did beseech you by us ; we pray you in Christ's stead, 
be ye reconciled to God." If Jesus Christ were standing 
here tonight, with His wounded hands and bleeding 
breast, there would be nothing to joke about. If God 
Almighty were standing here tonight making a plea with 
you, you would say, now we must listen ; but, my friends, 
the Word that I am speaking to you tonight is the Word 
of Him whose hands and breast were bleeding. The 
words that I preach to you tonight are the words of the 
Almighty God. And so Paul made a plea that the people 
should not receive the grace of God in vain. 

Paul set up this great danger signal before the world 
that they might remember not only that there is a day 
of salvation, but there is an hour in the day when a man 
must be saved or lost forever. ''Behold, noAV is the ac- 
cepted time: behold, noAv is the day of sah^ation." Right 
now, right in this moment. Paul never had any use for 
the man that wanted to put off until tomorrow what ought 
to be done today, or to put off until evening Avhat ought 
to be done this morning; Paul never made a plea that 
said, do this before sundown. Paul's great plea was that 
now is now, and that noAv is the only opportunity that any 
man e\er did or ever Avill do anything. If we could sim- 
ply learn what time means Ave would not be so foolish 
as to put off into the future what never can be done in 
the future. If a man Avill ever be saA^ed, he must be saved 
in the present moment. If a man is eA-er going to be 



FIK8T SUNDAY IX LENT. 289 

damned, lie must be damned in the present moment. 
There is not a thing eA er done that was done in the past, 
I do not care of what you speak. Here stands a great 
temple. Stone after stone was laid up on top of each 
other; at last it was completed and dedicated to the tri- 
une and living God; then soon after a man of God stood 
here where I stand and plead with you as I plead, plead 
for the same Savior and for the same cause that I plead 
with you tonight; but remember, every stone in that wall 
was laid up in the present; when one stone was placed 
ux)on the other, it was now, and only now; and every 
member of this church that was ever saved, was saved 
in the present; and when you die, it will not be tomor- 
row; when you breathe your last breath it will be just 
as much now as if you died this moment. Do you grasp 
the idea? Paul's plea was, now is the time to be saved. 
For fear that some of you may not live until the end of 
this sermon, I hold up before you noT\' Jesus Christ, dying 
on the cross in your stead, as a substitute for your sins. 
You were guilty and He was not. He is dying for you, 
wretched sinner, that you might have eternal life, and 
says, Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are lieavy 
laden, and I Avill give you rest. And, Him that cometli 
unto Me, I will in no wise cast out. He that believeth 
and is baptized sliall be saved, and he that believeth not 
shall be damned. That is true now; it will be true when 
the Judgment becomes the now; it will be ti-ue when 
eternity is now. I beseech you, therefore, as an ambassa- 
dor of God, make up your mind this moment that this 
Christ whom I preach to you tonight shall be your 
Savior, now. 

II. He not only made a plea for souls; PauFs plea 
was for the church. "Giving no offense in anything, that 
the ministry be not blamed; but in all things approving 
ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in 
afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in im- 
prisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fast- 
ings; by pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by 
kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned," When 
19 



290 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

that great mind of Paul begins to reach out, it seems as^ 
though He can reach from sky to sky. His love is won- 
derful. It reminds me of a little verse one time found 
on the wall in a cell of an insane asylum. The author 
of these words was not so insane when he wrote them : 

"Could we with ink the ocean fill 
And were the skies of parchment made, 
And every stalk on earth a quill, 
To write the love of God to man 
Would drain the ocean dry; 
Nor could the scroll contain the whole 
If stretched from sky to sky." 

When this great mind of Paul begins to write, one 
would 8uj)pose that a scroll from sky to sky could not 
contain the thoughts that are crowding themselves into 
the great pages of God'S Word. He has in mind the 
Church of God, and he saj^s, be careful in your Christian 
life that you do not give offense to the ministry ; that you 
do not give offense to the Church of God. I know of no 
better rule of life than to ask yourself the question every 
day, what influence are my actions now having on the 
Churcli of God? What Avould you think of me as a min- 
ister of the Gospel if I stood here tonight and preached 
purity of life, and tomorrow you find me staggering on 
the street as a drunkard? What would you think of me 
if I stood here tonigiit and prayed God the Holy Spirit 
to bless us, and tomorrow in my conversation began to 
curse and swear? What would you think of me as a 
minister of the Gospel if tonight I said to you, be ye rec- 
onciled with God, and tomorrow I show that I am walk- 
ing in the footprints of tlie devil? Oh, says the Apostle 
Paul, 1 make a plea for the Church. The Church is the 
bride of Christ, and tlierefore, as members of that bride, 
we should be very careful not to give offense in our lives. 
The question ought to arise tomorrow, what are those 
things that I am about to do, what kind of an impres- 
sion are they going to make on the world concerning my 
church; what are my actions in the church? I am satis- 
fied if every man would listen to this plea of Paul, he 
would not come to Sunday school and then run home, 



FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT. 291 

and ghe offense to the Church of God. I am satisfied he 
would not give offense to the Cliurch of God by living an 
ungodly life, or by conducting himself in his business 
affairs in such a way as to hurt and harm the bride of 
Christ. A man that is a true Christian will ask himself 
the question, no difference what he does, what effect will 
this have upon the world as to my church? It ought to 
regulate marriage ; it ought to regulate the home ; it ought 
to regulate all the business affairs of life ; it ought to regu- 
late our conversation. How often I find mj self talking 
in public and in private, but not always in such a ^^ ay 
that eveiy sentence may be an honor to the Church which 
I so dearly love. 

Let us, therefore, not offend this church, but always 
come to her defense. How shall we do this? ''By pure- 
ness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the 
Hol}^ Ghost, by love unfeigned.-' The man that tries to 
live a pure life is coming to the defense of the church. 
The man that wants to know more of the Bible and more 
of his catechism is able to defend the truth which he 
confesses, and is coming to the defense of his church. 
The man that has much patience and long-suffering, like 
Paul, and like Christ, is coming to the defense of his 
church. The man that is always looking out for an 
oj)portunity to do some good, kind act for some poor, 
fallen, Avretched being, is coming to the defense of his 
church. Tlie man that depends wholly and solely upon 
the light of the Holy Spirit, that is filled with that love 
of which we heard so much last Sunday, is coming to the 
defense of his church. My dear friends, as Moses on 
Mount Sinai, dwelling with God, came down and had to 
veil his face because he was in the presence of God, so 
we should always live in such a way that to be in our 
presence makes people feel that they are in the presence 
of just such a character. That is the plea of the Apostle 
Paul. 

There are enough words in this text to make a thou- 
sand sermons, but let me say, in one word, never do a 
thing that will hurt your church. Christ purchased it 
with His blood on Caharv, and Avlien anv one savs anv- 



292 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

tiling against your church, come to her defense. I pitT 
the poor children who live in homes where fathers have 
no more sense than to talk against the church; that live 
in homes Avhere mothers are fighting their preachers; 
where children are allowed to hear things that will re- 
flect upon the church, which Jesus Christ bled and died 
for on Calvar}^ I used to wonder why it was that every 
time we Avould say one woyd against our pastor our 
father would say, Now hush right there; hush. When 
the neighbors would say we needed a change of pastors, 
father would say, I don't see any need, as long as we 
have got God's Word i^reached in its purity, I do not 
see any need. My friends, I do not remember, in the 
fifteen years I Avas under the parental roof, that father 
or mother ever said one word against their pastor or 
against their cliurch. At the time I thought they could 
not see as well as some of the neighbors. We had another 
neighbor Avho was ahvays fighting the church, always 
found fault with this and with that, and hi,o children 
heard it. Today they have nearly all left the church. No 
Avonder. No a\ onder. When a parent in the home slaps 
the bride of Christ in the face, the children will fight her. 
Paul made a plea for the Church of God, that you do 
not offend her, and ahvays come to her defense. 

Til. He made a plea for truth, that stands like a 
mountain in the distance, which only the fingers of the 
rays of the sun can touch. ''By the word of truth, by 
the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the 
right hand and on the left." Paul saw very well that the 
path of life can never be so draAvn as to suit CA^erybody. 
One of the most foolish men on earth is the man that 
tries to be so popular as to please everybody. It is sim- 
ply impossible. What pleases a child of the devil can 
neA'er please a child of God, and what pleases a child of 
God cannot please a child of the devil. The Apostle Paul 
recognized there is a path on AA^iich a man must go, and 
that must be the path of Him Avho said, "I am the Way, 
the Truth and the Life, and no man cometh to the Father 
bnt by ]\re," and he recognized that when a man takes 



FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT. 293 

that path he has got to do some fighting, and continue 
until the end, and when he reached the end he changed 
not his mind, but he said, "I have fought a good fight, I 
have finished my course, I have kept the faith." 

On the right hand will be those who will defend us; 
on the left hand will be those who will find fault with 
us. And so he goes on this straight path and sees on 
both sides some fighting to be done. By the Word of 
Truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteous- 
ness on the right hand and on the left, by honor on the 
right and dishonor on the left, by evil report on the left 
hand and good report on the right hand ; as a deceiver 
on the left, and yet true on the right; as unknown on 
the left, well known on the right; as dying on the left, 
behold, we live on the right ; as chastened on the left, not 
killed on the right; as sorrowful on the left, yet always 
rejoicing on the right; as poor on the left, jet making 
many rich on the right; as having nothing on the left, 
and yet possessing all things on the riglit. A Avonderful 
path! When a man of God does his duty there will be 
those who will honor him for it and stand by him to the 
last; there will be others that will find all kinds of fault 
with him. When a man does his full duty, there are 
always those that want the truth and rejoice in it and 
pass good reports; there are others that cannot stand 
the good news, and, therefore, they i3ass evil reports. 
There are those that will stand by the truth and say it 
is true, no difference how hard it hits us, and there are 
cowards who will go out and say, he is a deceiver. Some 
when they hear the truth will say, we know him well and 
he is popular among us; and then a man that cannot 
bear the truth will go away and say, I do not know him 
at all; he is unknown. There are some who will say. 
Now there is the life in the church; and the man that does 
not like the truth will go away and say. The church is 
dying. There are some who will say, We will chasten 
him ; and the others say, But you cannot kill him. Some 
will find they are very sad; others are rejoicing. The 
man that proclaims the truth may be so poor as not to 



,294 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

have au^^tliing but the soul, and the body, and the cloth- 
ing that he wears, but the man that preaches the truth, 
even if he has no home, is making his congregation rich, 
and giving them a home in heaven. He may have noth- 
ing, and yet if he has Christ and salvation, he possesses 
all things. 

Such, my friends, is the plea of the Apostle Paul, 
and noAV in conclusion let me urge upon you, yourself, 
to become co-workers with Christ in this great work. I 
conclude, therefore, with the first verse of my text : ''We 
then, as Avorkers together with him, beseech you also that 
ye receive not the grace of God in vain." Do joii realize 
tonight how much is being done for your salvation? Do 
you realize that God is working for it? Do you realize 
that Paul gave his very life that you might be saved? 
Do you realize that many a minister of the Gospel is 
pleading with you that you might be saved? Do you 
realize that our Sunday school superintendent is giving 
his life, and his time, that you might be saved? Do you 
realize that these Sunday school teachers are coming to 
their teachers' meetings, studying the Word of God, in 
order that they may become more efficient and sufficient, 
to work hand in hand that you might be saved? Do you 
understand tonight that the very angels of heaven, the 
messengers of God, are watching over the saints, that 
they may be saved? Do you realize that tlie great Church 
of God all over the earth is praying, Thy kingdom come, 
that you might be saved? Do you understand that the 
very hand of the Almighty God is pushing down the Avails 
of China, is guiding the war between Russia and Japan, 
breaking down the walls everywhere, that the Gospel of 
Christ may have its Avay all over the world, that every 
nation on earth may be con^dnced that there is work 
being done, Avork by the hand of God Almighty, by the 
angels and the saints, and by the living men of God, 
that you might be saved, and then, when you are saved, 
you are supposed to take up your hand, as Saul took up 
the liand of Paul, and work together for the salvation df 
souls, tbat none may receiA^e the grace of God in vain? 
Amen. 



FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT. 295 



PRAYER. 

Our Father in heaven, if we were to pray all night, we could not 
ask for more than Thou hast taught us in Thy prayer : 

Our Father who art in heaven ; Hallowed be Thy name ; Thy 
kingdom come ; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven ; Give 
us this day our daily bread ; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us ; And lead us not into temptation ; 
But deliver us from evil ; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT. 

Know and Grow. 

I Thes. 4 :l-7. 

fURTHERMORE then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by 
the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to 
walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more. 
For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. 
For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should 
abstain from fornication; that every one of you should know how to 
possess his vessel in sanctification and honor ; not in the lust of con- 
cupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God : That no man go 
beyond and defraud his brother in any matter; because that the Lord 
is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified. 
For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved in Christ: 

The celebrated missionary, Louis Harms, tells of 
an incident that took place in a hotel in Europe, which 
is worth remembering. A man who was skeptical stepped 
into that hotel one evening and found an old Book lying 
on the table, open. He read in that Book the wonderful 
story of the passion of Christ; he turned away with a 
kind of a sneer as if to say, this hotel is run by some 
religious fool that still clings to the old Bible; but the 
Holy Spirit had impressed the words on his mind, and 
as he turned aAvay from the old Bible and looked at the 
wall, he saw a picture Avhich made a deeper impression 
on his mind; it was the picture of the Savior, blood ooz- 
ing from his hands, and feet, and breast, and from the 
thorny crown, while His head was bowed in death, and 
it seemed that that picture preached a sermon, to him 

296 



SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT. 297 

that brougiit the tears to his eyes, and as they fell they 
seemed to have the weight to pull his head down low 
enough to see written below that picture these words : 
'This is what I have done for thee : What have you done 
for Me?" And when the landlord stepped into that room 
he saw there a man in tears, Aveeping like Peter of old. 
He went to him and asked him Avhat was the matter. He 
said, ''I read the old Bible and tried to sneer at it, but 
God has used that picture on the wall to show me what 
an unthankful Avretch I am. The Savior died for me and 
I have done nothing so far but ridicule Him and His 
Church, and now I feel that I must sink into the depths 
of hell. Oh, what shall I do? What shall I do?" That 
Christian landlord comforted him that night with the 
Word of God, showed him the Lamb of God that taketh 
away the sin of the world, but with heavy heart the trav- 
eler Avent away. Six months later he returned and said, 
with joyful countenance, ''Your Lord is now my Lord; 
your Savior is uoav my Sa^aor; your salvation and peace 
are now my salvation and my peace; my home has be- 
come like your home; there is only one thing missing, 
and I Avant it. What will you take for the picture on 
the wall that brought me to salvation?" 

The more I consider the great sufferings of Jesus 
Christ, the more I am led to ask myself the question, 
What can I do for my Savior? And the more I ask my- 
self this question, the more I am troubled with the little 
doing of some professed Christians who might do more 
for their Savior. The Apostle Paul had taught the Thes- 
salonians the wonderful Gospel of grace; he had in- 
structed them in the foundation of true religion, then 
went away and sent Timothy back that he might see 
hoAv they were getting along. Timothy returned and told 
Paul that they were still sound in the faith, but that 
they had not learned sanctification, that they had not 
learned yet hoAv to conduct themselves, and, Avith regard 
to their finances that they were still taking adA^antage of 
their neighbors in ungodly ways, and the Apostle Paul 
felt hurt, and Avrote th^is epistle in order that they might 
learn to abound more and more in sanctification. "Fur- 



298 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

thermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you 
by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye 
ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound 
more and more.'' In other words, Christianity is a 
growth. We cannot stand still. We are either better 
Christians today than we were last year, or we are not 
so good; we are either going forward in! the line of 
progress, or we are making retrogression. Let us ask 
ourselves the question this evening, are we growing in 
our faith and good works as a thank offering to the Lord 
Jesus, who laid down His life for us? I bring you this 
evening the beautiful message, 

KNOAV AND GROW. 

I. Know that you may grow. 
II. Grow that you may know. 

I. ^'Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and 
exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received 
of us hoAv ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye 
would abound more and more.-' 

1. In other Avords, know, that you may grow. What 
is it that he wants them to know? 'Tor ye know what 
commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus." The 
Apostle Paul in this letter appeals twelve times to the 
Thessalonians to the great fact that they know, and 
building upon that Avhich they know, he wants to show 
them how to grow, and one of the things he calls their 
attention to in our text, is that they know the command- 
ments, and that is one thing that you and I must know 
if we ever expect to grow. We must know both tables 
of the law, and both uses of that law. 

So many people in the present time know so little 
about the first table of the law. Even the world knows 
something about the golden rule, Love your neighbor as 
yourself, but how many people are there who realize that 
our first duty is to know who God is, and how not to 
take His name in vain, and how to remember the Sabbath 
Day to keep it holy. Paul had taught the Thessalonians 



SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT. 299 

this great law; he held up before them that first table 
to show them hoAv they should love their God with all 
their heart, with all their soul, with all their mind, Avith 
all their strength. They had been worshipping idols, and 
by the preaching of Paul they had turned aAvay from their 
idols to the true and living God. He took his pen and 
wrote these Avords : ^Tor they themselves show of us 
what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how 
ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true 
God." 

They not only knew the first table of the law, but 
he taught them also the second. He showed them it was 
their duty to be good and kind to their fathers and moth- 
ers; he showed them that hatred is murder, and that a 
murderer shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. He 
showed them it was necessary to lead pure lives. In the 
days when the Apostle Paul wrote this epistle there was 
a condition of affairs throughout that land that was 
abominable. The home had become like the homes were 
a fcAv years ago in France, and as they are becoming in 
our own country. In that day throughout that country 
it became a dishonor to raise children ; in that day it was 
considered honorable to be the finest lady in the world, 
as in France where virtue could be bought and sold; in 
that day men and women were not living a life of virtue; 
it was the crying sin of that country to which he refers 
in our text, and he calls their attention to the fact that 
that kind of a life is abominable, that it is ruining their 
bodies, and will ruin their souls in hell. He told them 
that they must not commit adultery; he told them that 
they must not steal; that they dare not take what does 
not belong to them by right ; that they must tell the truth, 
for to lie is devilish. He told them that to covet was 
idolatrj', and then, having taught them these command- 
ments, he says, knowing this, they should grow. 

Not only did he teach them the two tables of the 
law, but the two uses of the law. Tlie Ten Command- 
ments are given us for a double purpose. The first pur- 
pose is to show us our sins. How would you and I know 
we are sinners if we had not studied the Ten Command- 



300 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

ments? The Apostle Paul tells us he would not have 
known sin had he not found the commandment, Thou 
shalt not covet. There were other commandments that 
Paul felt he had kept, but when he found that one little 
commandment that he should not covet, he discovered in 
his heart covetousness, and Avhen he once discovered that 
in his heart, it wasn't long until he discovered that he 
that offendeth in one point is guilty of all. You need 
not take a hammer and hit every finger on my hand to 
hurt me; when I hurt one finger I have hurt the whole 
man, and when you have broken one commandment, you 
have broken all, for every commandment has love run- 
ning through it, and Avhenever you cut love in two, you 
have cut the law in tAvo, you have injured the whole law. 
The Apostle Paul taught these people the use of the law. 
He told them that if they would examine these command- 
ments every day, and examine themselves in the light of 
the commandments, they would discover what was after- 
wards taught in the Bible, that sin is the transgression 
of the law. 

But we have got these commandments not only to 
show us our sins, but also to show us the road on which 
we should travel for sanctification. When we are trying 
to live a better life the question comes up. What shall we 
do? And the first answer is, Know your God, and grow. 
Stop cursing and swearing and taking God's name in 
vain, and grow. Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it 
holy and grow. Stop hating your fellowmen, but begin 
to pray for your enemies, and grow. Stop committing 
adultery, and live virtuous lives, and try to lead others 
to lead virtuous lives, and grow. Stop stealing, but rather 
give, and grow. Stop lying; tell the truth, and grow. 
Stop coveting, rather thank God that your neighbor is 
prospering, and grow. That is what God wants us to 
know, that we may grow. Know the whole law. 

2. Not only shall we know the law, but we shall 
also know the Gospel. "Furthermore then we beseech 
you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that 
as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk" — Re- 
ceived what of us? In this epistle he tells us in different 



SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT. 301 

places what he gave them. ''For our Gospel came not 
unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the 
Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what 
manner of men we were among you for your sake." "For 
they themselves show of us what manner of entering in 
we had unto you, and hoAv ye turned to God from idols 
to serve the living and true God.'' Nothing but the Gos- 
pel of Christ could ever break down idolatry. ''For this 
cause also thank we God without ceasing, because when 
je received the Word of God which ye heard of us, ye 
received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, 
the Word of God, which effectually worketh also in you 
that believe." It is these things to which Paul refe^f-^ 
when he says, "Ye have received of us how ye ought to 
walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and 
more." In other words, they had heard the whole plan 
of the Gospel. He had told them of God the Father, the 
Almight}^ Maker of heaven and earth; he had told them 
of the good angels and of the bad angels; he had told 
them of Providence; he had told them IioaV this God who 
had created them was watching over them day and night ; 
that in Him they lived, and moved, and had their being. 
He quoted their own poet to show that there is a Provi- 
dence; he showed them how God is planning their lives 
and striving to lead them in the center of that path. He 
showed them that there is a Eedeemer, the Lord Jesus 
Christ, that as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilder- 
ness for the people to look at, and live, that so the Son 
of God was lifted up that they might look at Him and 
have eternal life. He told them why this Savior had to 
be God in order that He might pay the debt for a lost 
world. He showed them how this Savior had to become 
man that He might, as a substitute, hang on Calvary's 
cross, and die, as the mighty God; he showed them what 
that song would mean, that might be penned afterwards : 

"Well might the sun in darkness hide 

And shut her glories in, 
When Christ, the mighty Maker, died, 
For man, the creature's sin." 



302 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

He showed tlieiii how this Savior Avas King, and Prophet^ 
and High Priest. He sliOAved them how this King in 
His humiliation had gone doAvn from His conception to 
the Tery borroTNcd grave. He showed them how this 
mighty King had, in His exaltation, risen from His poAver 
as a conqueror in hell to the very throne of God, from 
Avhence He is coming to judge the quick and the dead. 
He showed them tlie i^ower of the Hoty Ghost. He showed 
them how this Holy Spirit comes to us through His Word 
and the Holy Sacraments. He taught them how this 
Holy Spirit AA'lien He does come, comes in the Church and 
offers forgiA'eness of sin to those Avho have faith in the 
dying Lamb. He told them hoAv this Holy Spirit is going 
to raise up these bodies by quickening them in the grave. 
He showed them how in the end the Judgment Avould 
come, and that there Avould be an eternal death for those 
AA^ho rejected Jesus Christ, and eternal life for those Avho 
accepted them. In otlier Avords, he taught them the sum 
and substance of the Apostle's Creed. That is the Gospel 
that he taught them, and they must knoAv this Gosj)el in 
order tliat the}' ma^^ grow. And I fear too many people 
are not studying their catechisms enough, are not dwell- 
ing enough on these great central doctrines of salvation. 
He taught them what prayer meant. '^We give 
thanks to God ahvays for you all, making mention of 
you in our prayers." Paul not only prayed, not only 
prayed Avithout ceasing, but whenever he did pray, he 
said, Lord God, bless all those Thessalonians whom I 
taught; bless all the Corinthians whom 1 taught; bless 
all the Komans aaIioui I taught; bless all the people who 
have lieard the teaching of the great Gospel. So he 
prayed. Paul had studied that prayer. Our Father who 
art in heaven; lie had studied that AA^onderful j)rayer that 
Jesus Christ taught, showing us hoAv we should pray 
six times as much for the soul as for the body; showing-^ 
us hoAv Ave should pray four times for God to give us 
good things, and three times to take bad things aAvay 
from us, shoAA^ng clearly to whom Ave shall pray, not to 
idols, not to some unknown God, but to the Father, Son 
and Holv Ghost, AAiiom we have learned to know in the 



SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT. 303 

fcst commandment. He taught them how they should 
pray for every man, friend or foe; he showed them how 
they should pray for spiritual gifts and temporal gifts; 
furthermore, how they should pray in the only name that 
will avail before the throne, in the name of Jesus Christ. 
He taught them to pray in their closets; he taught them 
to pray everywhere, day and night, to live in constant 
communion, and all this that they may grow, groAv in 
communion with God. I used to think as a young man 
when I read of men that prayed three and four hours 
at a time, that it is simply impossible, that no one would 
know what to say for three or four hours at a time, but 
I am convinced that a man cannot only pray three or 
four hours a daj and enjoy it, but he can pray all the 
time, pray without ceasing, and this kind of j)rayer comes 
only when we know that we may grow. This thing of 
praying over the same little prayer that you prayed 25 
years ago, and fjraying nothing more this year, is death 
instead of growth. This thing of believing just what 
you believed 25 years ago, and adding nothing to your 
knowledge, shows that you are making no progress. Let 
us know that Ave may grow, and see with a wider vision. 
Let our horizon get larger and larger, not finding fault 
with the man that may differ from us, not finding fault 
with the man that knoAvs little, but let us forever find 
fault with the man that is satisfied Avith what he knows, 
that ncA^er Avants to go deeper into things, that never 
w^ants to see wider nor look up higher. 

He taught them how to know the great subject of 
confession, hoAv to confess tlieir sins, how to belieA'e in 
Christ as the great ForgiA-er of our sins, through faith 
in Him. He taught them the wonderful doctrine of the 
Holy Supper, hoAv that the Lord God instituted a will 
and testament by which they might receive Him in, with, 
and under the emblems of bread and wine. He showed 
them how they should be faithful until death, that they 
might receive the crown of eternal life. He showed them 
how life was a battle, and that consequently every day 
should be nearer the A'ictory, that they would abound 
more and more. A dear brother in this church said to 



304 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

me tlie other day, It does seem as if some people never 
want to grow; it does seem as if some people never want 
to know, and I believe he is right. Oh, that we all would 
look at things as he does. He wants to be a better man 
tomorrow than he is today. He wants to grow every day 
more and more. 

3. Not only should we know the great law and the 
great Gospel, but if we want to grow we should also 
know our enemies. Paul says : "Wherefore we would 
have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but 
Satan hindered us.'' Satan hindered us. Paul wasn't 
running around in this world asking the question. Is 
there a devil? He saw too man}' of his footprints. When 
I go out in the winter and see along the fences many 
rabbit tracks, I know there are rabbits somewhere; 
and when we look around us in our homes, and all 
througli tlie city, eCnd see in the faces of men, and in 
our prisons, and in our hospitals, the footprints of the 
devil, there is no question in our minds about there 
being a devil, and until you notice this great fact that 
Satan is hindering us, you never can grow. Paul did 
not go wherever he wanted to go, because Satan hindered 
him. We learned in the Gospel lesson tliis morning how 
Satan had. possession of that dear mother's daughter 
and vexed her grievously. That same Satan is still on 
earth, and ever^^ sermon that is preached, he is trying 
to rob of its intention. If Satan can just draw your 
attention right now aAva^^ from the church, he has won 
a great victory. If Satan can right now put you to sleep, 
he has won a great victory. If Satan tonight can keep 
you out of the house of God, he has won a great victory. 
If he can in this moment make you misunderstand me, 
he has won a great victory, and I am convinced, that nine 
times out of ten when men misunderstand a sermon, it 
is nothing in the world but that Satan is trying to hin- 
der that sermon. Men have come to me and said, you 
said this and that, and I know I never said it; I know 
what I say; but I know, on the other hand, that there 
is one who can take a message and turn it and twist it 
in the minds of others. Let us be verv careful that we 



SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT. 305 

do not overlook the fact that we have a great enemy ^ 
and if we do not know him, we will never grow. 

And this enemy is not only the devil himself, it is 
the world at large. Paul recognized another enemy. "For 
ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God 
which in Judea are in Christ Jesus; for ye also have 
suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as 
they have of the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus, 
and their own prophets, and have persecuted us, and 
they please not God, and are contrary to all men; for- 
bidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be 
saved, to fill up their sins alway, for the wrath is come 
upon them to the uttermost." In other words, the Apos- 
tle Paul knew very well that the world is trying to fight 
the Church all the time, that the world is doing all it 
can to lead young people astray, and unless we know 
this, we will never grow. If you think that the First 
Lutheran church can prosper without a battle, you are 
mistaken. If you think we can keep our young people 
on God's side without a battle, you are mistaken. If 
you think it is an easy thing to be a Christian, you are 
mistaken. Yes, it is an easy thing to have your name 
put on the church book; it is an easy think to pay a 
dollar and a quarter a year and then go and serve the 
devil all your life; it is an easy thing to have the 
preacher come to see you when you are sick, and to be 
buried with flowers on your coffin and a few words at 
the grave, but it is another thing to be a child of God^ 
to abound more and more, to live closer to your Mas- 
ter, and to say to the world. Farewell forever! It is 
another thing to be able to say to the comrades that 
stand by your side, fighting the truth. You are wrong; 
a far different thing than to stand and smile and say, I 
agree with you. Child of God, stop agreeing with the 
world! Stop walking on the paths that are fighting the 
Church of God! It is time that every man of God come 
out on God's side fully and wholly, and know, that you 
may grow. 

Not only must we know the enemy, the world, but 

20 



306 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

we must know the enemy, our own flesh. ''For ye know 
what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. 
For this is the will of God, even your sanctifieation, 
that ye should abstain from fornication." Why was it 
necessary for Paul to write so plainly? Why was it 
necessary for him to say to them "That every one of you 
should know how^ to possess his vessel in sanctifieation 
and honor"? Because he knew that the greatest gifts 
that God has given to man are the very gifts that man 
is abusing. He knew that there was one sin that was 
ruining more people than possibly all the others put 
together. And there has been no change in history. The 
same thing is going on today. You say, We do not like 
such plain sermons. I want to tell you the pulpit is 
going to be responsible on the Judgment day for the 
damnation of many a young man and many a young 
woman. The truth is that some ministers are trying 
these very days to say something that the people cannot 
understand, instead of saying the things they must un- 
derstand. And why should we make terms any more 
polite than the language of the Bible? Why should ser- 
mons in the pulpit be an}^ more polite than the life in 
the home? When young men with their names on the 
church book are going to destruction in bad places, it is 
time that the pulpit wakes up. And you will always 
find that the vouns: bov and vouno' airi are faithful to 
their church until they reach that age where they begin 
to break the sixth commandment, and then you will not 
find them in the church any more, and that is the sin 
that is ruining thousands of homes today. I have simply 
no respect whatever for these old bachelors living in this 
country among us as honorable men when we know that 
most of them are ungodly wretches, and are helping to 
damn homes and souls. I honor the unmarried lady, 
no difference what her age may be, but these men that 
will not take the responsibility of a home, that are sim- 
ply standing on the corners waiting for an opportunity 
to step into some home and ruin it, because they are not 
manly enough to support a family and a home, I say God 
have mercy upon them, and may the time soon come that 



SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT. 307 

every man that has a well body and a sound mind and 
does not take the responsibility of a home upon him, 
will be looked down upon, as he ought to be. God gave 
him the command, and told him what his duty was. 
These are the sins of the times, and these are the ene- 
mies that we have got to know in order that the Church 
of God may grow. 

II. We not only should know that we may grow,, 
but we ought to grow that we may know. The little 
child, by its knowledge and the knowledge of its parents,, 
is taken care of, and it grows, but just as that child 
grows it also gets the power of knowing more; so there 
is a twofold action takes place in man. He knows that 
he may grow, and he grows that he may know, and this 
lies also in our text. "So ye Avould abound more and; 
more." It takes time to grow. As I said a while ago, 
the Apostle Paul had sent Timothy over to the Thessa- 
lonians in order that they might be better instructed,, 
and grow better in their sanctification. He came back 
and reported he had discovered two sins, the ones that I 
have mentioned, were taking hold among the Christian 
people again. And so Paul said, I would like to come 
to you again, but Satan has hindered me and I cannot 
lose the time ; I will write you a letter, and the result is 
that we have this beautiful letter, and thank God for it. 
We need it today just as much as they needed it in Thes- 
salonica, but he lost no time, and the thing we should 
do is to groAv that we may know the value of a moment. 
Learn how to use our moments^ and how to use our 
members, and hoAv to use our money. 

1. First of all, that we may know how to use our 
moments. When New Year's Day comes, we usually 
form a resolution that this year we are going to do bet- 
ter, but did you ever stop to think that no man can do 
better a year? Did you ever stop to think you cannot 
act in a year, nor in a month, nor in a week? Just take 
hold of a year and hold it. Can you? Did you ever try 
to grasp a month and hold it? How can I do anything 
thirty days in the future? How can I do anything seven 
days in the future? How can I do anything twenty- 



308 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

four hours in the future? It seems to me the time has 
come that we ought to grow, that we might know that 
the only time that is ours is the present moment. The 
Bible says in one place that we shall die in a moment, 
and the Apostle Paul said the same thing in the 15th 
chapter of I Cor., when he said that in the twinkling of 
an eye, in a moment, we shall be changed. Do you grasp 
the idea? My dear friends, did you ever try to divide 
a moment? A moment is like the point of a needle. Did 
jou ever try to split the point of a needle? Can you do 
it? This present moment — what am I doing with it? 
It is God's, and if it is God's moment what right have I 
to try to divide it? It seems to me that we ought to 
grow until we know that every moment is God's, and 
that it absolutely cannot be divided, and therefore, must 
be given to Him. No man is a thorough Christian who 
does not realize what I am trying to impress upon you 
this moment, that our time is absolutely God's and should 
be given to Him; and when you give it, you cannot hold 
it ; it is His. Ask yourself the question, not how did I 
spend yesterday, nor how did I spend last year, but how 
did I spend every moment every day when that moment 
was mine, and given over to God? Oh, these precious 
moments! how we have misspent them. Claimed them 
as our own, when they were God's! The value of a 
moment is seen when we study the history of great men. 
Luther's life was a wonderful life, but the greatness of 
that life lay in a moment — in that moment when he stood 
before kings and before enemies, and said, "Here I stand ; 
I cannot do otherwise. God help me!" It was that 
moment that made Luther great. You say, I remember 
a certain sermon, and it made a wonderful impression on 
me. 'Was it the sermon? Was it? I do not think it was. 
I think it was one thought in that sermon; it was one 
moment in that sermon that made the impression. The 
great things of the world have not been done in hours; 
the hours have passed by until God reaches a certain 
moment, and in that moment he struck an impression 
that all eternity can never erase. 

2. Grow not only that you may know the use of 



SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT. 309 

moments, but grow that you may know how to use your 
members. "For this is the will of God, even your sanc- 
tification, that ye should abstain from fornication; that 
every one of you should know how to possess his vessel 
in sanctification and honor." His vessel. What is meant 
by .that? Commentators have given us two different 
answers to that question. Some have said it is the body 
of the Christian which is the vessel in which God has 
placed his soul, and that this body itself should be pos- 
sessed in sanctification. Others have said this vessel refers 
to the spouse of the husband, or the wife, that the wife 
is the vessel of the husband, as the husband is the vessel 
of the wife, and that therefore they should live a life of 
sanctification with all their bodies. I believe that if the 
apostle Paul had meant bod}^, he would have said body. 
I believe that the inspired writer said just exactly what 
the Holy Spirit wanted him to say. It is not popular to 
mention such things in the pulpit, but, mj friends, you 
understand that when God said vessel, he means vessel, 
that every one of you should know to possess his vessel 
in sanctification and honor. It is time that we grow until 
we know that we must not only sanctify our hands and 
our feet, and our brain, but especially those parts of the 
body that are too delicate to mention, and yet so sacred 
that God uses them to give to the world the human race, — 
sanctification of the whole man. And it does seem to me 
that the time has come that we ought to grow until we 
know that there is not a bone in the body, nor a nerve in 
the body, nor a particle that should not be thoroughly 
consecrated to Jesus Christ. If people understood what 
I am trying to say, how differently they would act. As 
long as these hands are considered by myself as my 
hands, I will do with them Avhat I would do, but just 
as soon as I recognize that these hands shall be given to 
Jesus Christ, I will only do with them what Jesus Christ 
would do. Men go and visit each other in the evening — 
professed Christians — and they sit around the table with 
the old euchre deck in their hands, and say. Now I have a 
hand. Yes, you have got a hand. Whose is it? Whose 
hand is it, that is the question. If it is your hand, play. 



310 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

If it is Christ's hand, drop it. You go to the dance and to 
the public hall and saj, I am a virtuous girl, or I am a 
pure minded man, and I can go there and pray if it is 
necessary, and can live a virtuous life, but, dear friends, 
you do know that about two-thirds of all the boys and girls 
that have ever been ruined, have started on the ball room 
floor, and if you can go there with your o^\'n feet, go and 
dance, but if you think you can go there and dance with 
the feet of Jesus Christ, try it. Xow, try it. A man can 
go and live an ungodly life just as long as his body is 
considered his own, but it is never his own. '^Ye are not 
your own.-' My body this very moment belongs to Jesus 
Christ or it belongs to the devil. If it is the devil- s, let 
the devil do with it what he pleases; if it is God's, then 
I want to do with it just what God would have me do. 
That is plain. You are not your own. You have got 
no more right to do with yourself as you please, than you 
have to say, Here, devil, take me and do what you please. 
So it seems to me the question is not so much, dare I do 
this, or dare I do that, as the other question, am I Christ's 
or am I not? Have I consecrated my body, my vessel, to 
Jesus Christ, or have I not? 

3. We should not only know how to use our mem- 
bers better, but we also ought to grow that we might 
know how to use our money better. "That no man go 
beyond and defraud his brother in any matter ; because that 
the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have fore- 
warned you and testified. For God hath not called us unto 
uncleanness, but unto holiness." Ever since the world has 
existed, and sin has come into the world, men have become 
selfish. In their selfishness they have tried not only to 
ruin other families by the sin mentioned before, but they 
have also tried to gain possession of things without giving^ 
an equivalent. As a result, we find many people calling 
themselves professed Christians who have gone out among 
their fellow men and have robbed them of that which they 
can never return. Let all those people remember that 
there is a God who is the avenger of all such; remember 
that there is a God who said. Thou shalt not steal. The 
man that does not take care of his money and look upon 



SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT. 311 

that money as a gift of God to be used to His glory, does 
not understand what growth in sanctiflcation means. It 
seems to me that the money question is one that we ought 
to study more from a Scriptural standpoint. Do you 
mean to say, says some one, that I cannot take my own 
and use it for myself? That is just what I mean — just 
exactly what I mean. I claim that I have no more right 
to use that hand for mj^self, or that foot for myself, or my 
money for myself, than I have to use anything else for 
myself. Why, you say, how will you get anything to eat, 
how will you get anything to wear, or to clothe your fam- 
ily if you do not take your money and use it for yourself? 
My dear friend, that is very easily answered. All that you 
have and all that I have, by the act of consecration and 
sanctification belongs to God, and then, when I give it 
to my God, He appoints me to use it, not for myself but on 
myself, just as He expects me to use it on other things. 
Do not forget, my friend, that you, yourself, are an object 
of your OAvn care just as much as anything else is, and 
when God puts money into your hands, you are His stew- 
ard. It is all His. The Silver and the gold are Mine, 
saith the Lord, and I appoint you now as steward, and 
wiiile taking care of that stewardship, do not forget your- 
self; whenever you need clothing, buy it; whenever you 
need something to eat or to drink, buy those things; if 
you need a home to live in, buy it; if you need a little 
fund to take care of you in your old age, keep it ; do not 
use it for yourself, but on yourself. It is Mine. And just 
as you use this fund of God's on yourself, use it on other 
things. You must use this gold on God's poor. Remem- 
ber, my friends, that God has a church He purchased with 
His blood, and remember that that church needs funds 
as well as your own families. We are standing before the 
threshold of a new financial 3 ear in the First Lutheran 
Church. What are you going to do this coming year? Sit 
at home and say, the church is out of debt and we will do 
less than Ave did before? Has God helped you to get less 
than you were getting before? Are your wages smaller 
than they were before? Hasn't God been saying, abound 
more and more? Are we going to grow or go backward? 



312 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

Just look around and see the things we need ; see whether 
we need money enough to balance up the treasury to date, 
and then stop and think what we will need throughout 
the coming year. We ought to have a bell on the church 
of God to call the little children in, so that they are not 
playing on the street Avlien they ought to be listening to 
God's Word. We ought to have a fund that can go out 
and do good work among the poor. , We need some of 
God's gifts to carry on the mission in our own city. We 
need some of God's gifts to carry on the appropriation 
due to the great church of God at large. Wherever we 
look, God has need for those things. Are Ave going to do 
less, or more? Let us be careful that we do not let our 
church run in debt again. We have a great work here, 
and let us all do more this year than we have ever done 
before. Let us grow and abound more and more, but 
remember, after all, these are God's gifts and not ours. 

I wish I had time to show you how we should conse- 
crate ourselves entirely to the Lord and Master. Oh, may 
the Holy Spirit help us this morning that we may know, 
that we may grow, and that we may grow that we may 
know. I will conclude Avhat I have to say by quoting a 
beautiful little poem which I found this week: 

Take my life and let it be 
Consecrated. Lord, to Thee. 

Take my moments and my days ; 
Let them flow in ceaseless praise. 

Take my hands and let them move 
At the impulse of Thy love. 

Take my feet and let them be 
Swift and beautiful, for Thee. 

Take my voice and let me sing 
Always, only, for my King. 

Take my lips and let them be 
Filled with messages from Thee. 

Take my silver and my gold ; 
Not a mite would I withhold. 



SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT. 313 

Take my intellect and use 

Every power as Thou shalt choose. 

Take my will and make it Thine ; 
It shall be no longer mine. 

Take my heart; it is Thine own; 
It shall be Thy royal throne. 

Take my love, my God, I pour 
At Thv feet its treasure store. 



Take myself and I will be 
Ever, onl}^ all for Thee. 



PRAYER. 



Amen. 



O God, our heavenly Father, we thank Thee in this hour for Thy 
precious Word, so clear and so plain that we may not only see the 
things that we should know, but learn how we should grow. We ask 
Thee then that Thou wilt help us to make diligent use of 
Thy Word and the Holy Sacraments, that the Holy Spirit may 
work in us according to His wall. We pray Thee that Thou wilt 
help us all to consecrate ourselves, body and soul entirely to Thee and 
to Thy service. Help us to ask ourselves the question today, what are 
we doing for Thee, O Christ, Thou Lamb of God, that t'akest away the 
sin of the world. Heavenly Father accept us now, and lead us in paths 
selected by Thee, and. keep us in the center of those paths, and over hill 
and dale, until we get behind the veil, let us sing that prayerful song 
which Thou hast taught us : 

Our Father who art in heaven ; Hallowed be Thy name ; Thy 
kingdom come ; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven ; Give 
us this day our daily bread ; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us ; And lead us not into temptation ; 
But deliver us from evil ; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, 
and the glorv, forever and ever. Amen. 



THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT. 
Three Classes of Children. 

Eph. 5:1-9. 

BE ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; and walk in 
love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for 
us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. 
But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once 
named among you, as becometh saints ; neither filthiness, nor foolish 
talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of 
thanks. For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, 
nor covetous man. who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the king- 
dom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words, 
for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children 
of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them. For ye were 
sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord : walk as children 
of light. (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteous- 
ness and truth.) 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. x\men. 



Beloved in Christ: 

Life is too short and our knoAvledge too limited ever 
to think that we are beyond childhood. When people have 
passed the strong days of their lives and are going down 
the hill toward the Jordan, we sometimes say they have 
become childish. It seems to me that the oldest people 
in the world have lived such a short time that we have a 
j)erfect right to address them in the face of eternity as 
children. And when we compare that which we know 
with that which we do not know, surely we are always 
little children. Sometimes in the Word of God the Holy 
Spirit speaks of little children in distinction from older 
people, and sometimes He addresses all chidren of God as 
dear children. If you have noticed the reading of my text 

314 



THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT. 315 

carefully you have found there are three casses of children 
mentioned here, and it is to these three classes that I now 
invite your attention, and may you as you sit before me 
this evening find yourselves surely in the second class, 
and also grow into the third; and may God, the Holy 
Spirit, prevent you staying in the first class if you should 
be there. 

THREE CLASSES OF CHILDREN. 

I. The children damned. 
II. The children delivered. 
III. The children dear. 

I. There are some children that are lost. "For this 
ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor 
covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritarice 
in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive 
you with vain words : for because of these things cometh 
the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience" — or, 
better translated, the children of unbelief. Now if such 
people as are mentioned in my text and in the verse 
just quoted shall have no inheritance in the kingdom of 
Christ and of God, pray tell me, Avhere shall they dwell 
in all eternity? And if the wrath of God shall rest upon 
them, what are they but children damned? Who are 
these children dammed? Whoremongers, unclean persons, 
covetous people — all a result of unbelief. Look at it as 
you will, every crime in the world is a direct child of un- 
belief. On the great Judgment Day the question will not 
be asked, did you kill? did you murder? did you steal? 
did you lie? for all these things are only the children of 
a mother that will be mentioned. He that believeth not 
shall be damned. Why? Because unbelief is the mother 
of all uncleanness. Let a man confess to me that he does 
not believe in Christ, and it is only another step to show 
him that he does not believe in the Bible; it is only 
another step to show that he does not believe in the true 
and living God, and only another to show that he does 
not believe in a Judgment to come, and to show that that 
man, if it is necessary, Avill do anything mean and low if 



316 . THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

the law does not catch him, for his own selfish ends. In 
other words, unbelief is the mother of all sin, and is the 
damning sin, and from this mother are born such il- 
legitimate children as wlioremongers, unclean persons and 
covetous people. 

1. Some one might say, Avhy mention these people 
so often? Dear friends, when you read these epistles of 
Paul carefully, you will find that it was the crime and the 
sin among all the nations addressed, and it would be just 
as true to-day. If the Apostle Paul were to write a letter 
to the Clevelanders, and to the Cincinnatians, and to the 
Columbusites, or to the Chicagoans, lie would have to 
speak of these same sins that he did Avhen he wrote to the 
Ephesians and to the Thessalonians and to the Romans. 
A Avhoremonger is a man that will do anything to ruin 
families; he is a man that has no faith in God; lie is a 
man that does not care if he does pollute the family altar; 
he does not care if he does ruin your wife, your sister, your 
daughter; he is the meanest man in smj community, and 
that man will never enter the kingdom of God in the con- 
dition in which he is. I hope there are no such children 
sitting before me tonight. 

But let us not for a single moment imagine there 
is only one commandment in the world that makes a man 
unclean. "Nor unclean persons," it is said here. We all 
acknowledge that the man that has no respect for the 
family, and for virtue, is a thoroughly bad manj but how 
about the man that does not know who the true and living 
God is? How about the man that curses and swears? 
How about the man that does not keep the Sabbath Day 
holy? How about the man that does not treat his aged 
father and mother as he ought? How about the man that 
will take a dollar that is not his own? How about the 
man that will lie in order to make a bargain? How about 
the man that will covet that which belongs to his neigh- 
bor? My friends, I am afraid we are overlooking the fact 
that one commandment in God's sight is just as precious 
as the other, and there are people that are disobeying the 
third commandment all the time that are called respect- 
able, and in God's sight they are just as mean and low as 



THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT. 31 T 

a dirty whoremonger. A man has no right to do as her 
pleases on the Sabbath day. A man has no right to treat 
his father and mother as he pleases, unless he pleases to 
treat them rightly. A man has no right to curse and damn 
just because he is angry; he is guilty, and just as long as 
a man has sin in him, willful sin, and does not try to 
keep the commandments, so long he is an unclean person, 
and an uuclean person shall never enter the kingdom of 
lieaven. That is certain as God's Word is true. 

It is just as true of a covetous man. Oh, hoAv we pat 
some men on the back w^hen they liave a big bank ac- 
count, and big house and yard, and a great many farms, 
and are rich, and we say, that man has made a success; 
and the probability is that he has made a success to go 
right to hell; that is what he has done. What is a covetous 
man? ''For this ye know that no whoremonger, nor un- 
clean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath 
any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.'' 
He is an idolater, a worshipper of false gods. I have a 
thousand times more respect for the poor Indian that wor- 
sliips the sun, than for a man that will get down before 
160 acres of dirt and worshij) it; a thousand times more 
respect for the man that worships the unknown god on 
Mars' hill, than for the man that will run over his bank 
account year after 3'ear, gloat over the swelling account,, 
and refuse to help the poor and the needy. I say that man 
is an idolater of the worst kind. How often Ave take a 
man into church discipline Avhen he commits this wrongs 
or that Avrong, but he can be an idolater and Ave pat him 
on the back, and when he gives tAvo or three dollars, just 
about as much as the poor wash-woman, Ave pat him on 
the back and are thankful that Ave got them from the 
rascal that is going straight to hell, and Ave know it. He 
sliall not enter the kingdom of heaven. The great Gaspare 
said one time of an idolater that he has four rules by 
Avhich he Avill stand : The first is. Forget God, lest I be 
couA^erted ; the second is, Forget my neighbors, my friends, 
my good old father and mother, lest I might do an act of 
charity; the third is. Forget my conscience and my soul, 
lest I might change my mind; and the fourth is. Forget 



318 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

death and the Judgment and heU fire, lest I go crazy. 
That is a great theologian's definition of a covetous man. 
Yes, he does not want to think of God, or he might yet be 
converted; he is an idolater; he wants to forget his fel- 
low men entirely, lest he might do some little kind act ; he 
wants to forget his conscience and his soul lest he might 
yet change his mind and give up his little God ; he must 
not think of death; it makes him shiver; he will not 
go to a funeral, for fear he might die. Oh, if there is 
anything he despises to hear, it is of the Judgment and 
of hell fire, for he knows he will go there. And so, rather 
than lose his mind, he bows down before his dirty dollars 
and worships them, and for him there is no room in the 
kingdom of heaven. That is the first class of children 
mentioned in our text tonight. Around all of them you 
will find one common band, one label — unbelievers in 
Christ! 

II. There is a second class of children spoken of in 
this text: "Be not ye therefore partakers with them. 
For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in 
the Lord : walk as children of light. E'or the fruit of the 
Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth.'' 
Dear children are called children of light. They have 
been delivered from darkness unto light, and this de- 
liverance has been to goodness, righteousness and truth. 
Oh, what a wonderful thing it is to be delivered from the 
natural life to the Spiritual, from total darkness to the 
light of salvation ! What a great delivery it is for a man 
to come out from the bondage of Satan and the world, 
and his own flesh, into the glorious liberty of children of 
God. The Truth shall make you free, said Jesus. When 
the Son shall make you free, then you shall be free indeed. 
What a glorious liberty therefore it is for one to be de- 
livered from darkness to light, from darkness to the light 
of goodness ! When God takes a child of Satan and makes 
him a child of His own, He makes him a good child, and 
the desire of that child is to do good, because God has been 
so good to him. Let us not boast of our goodness, but 
when we have been delivered from darkness, let us re- 
member that as delivered children we have before us this 



THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT. 319^ 

mind, how can I do good, and where can I do good? What 
a glorious life it is when men have that in their minds! 
What a glorious city Mansfield would be if every man and 
every woman and every child would constantly look about 
and ask the question, what good thing can* I do to-day, and 
where can I find something good to do this hour? And 
there is so much to do everywhere — so many oppor- 
tunities are given to make the world better! How much 
good it does sometimes to help a man in a time of need,, 
and to take his hand just wlien he feels despondent and 
hardly knows what to do the next hour, meet him with a 
smile and a God bless you and help you to-day ! Brethren, 
let us be children of light, delivered from darkness to the 
glorious libert}^ of light. 

1. And not only should we strive to do better and 
be kinder every day, but also strive as children of light 
to be delivered from darkness to the light of righteous- 
ness. For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and 
righteousness. The Lord Jesus Christ is righteous. As we 
heard this morning. He is full of grace and truth. He is 
a fountain that always runs over, is always waiting to 
cover us with His righteousness. He finds us poor, lost, 
condemned, helpless sinners, and when we lie there like 
a worm, helpless. He picks us up and says, the Son of man 
is come to seek and to save that which is lost ! And when 
He picks us up, He puts His garment of Righteousness 
on us, and clothes us carefully with that white garment 
of Righteousness, and then, when we have that garment 
on, a question comes into our minds, and we never can 
get away from it; it comes to our minds in the morning 
when we get up; it is in our minds at noon, and in the 
evening, and that question is always this. Is it right? 
The Lord is my Shepherd ; I shall not want. He maketh 
me to lie down in green pastures; He leadeth me beside 
the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me 
in the paths of righteousness, and out of that path the 
child delivered from darkness to light never can stray, 
except he says. Lord, lead me back. I want to do right 
because Thou hast covered me with Thy righteousness! 

2. The child delivered not onlv comes back from 



320 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

darkness to the great light of goodness, and to the great 
light of righteousness, but to the great light of truth. 
Christ said of Satan that he is the father of lies. Christ 
said of Himself, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. 
There is as much difference between being lost, and being 
saved, as there is between darkness and light. There is 
as much difference between being lost and saved as there 
is between hell and heaven, as there is between Satan and 
Christ. Satan is the father of lies. Christ is the Truth. 
And when we are delivered from darkness to light, the 
question will arise every day, how can I tell the truth 
better than I have been telling it? A man absolutely 
cannot love lies and be a child of God. I believe one of 
the hardest things in the Avorld for a man to do, is to tell 
the exact truth every time, under all circumstances. How 
many people there are who think an exaggeration is all 
right. It is a lie, and nothing but a lie; it comes from 
Satan and from darkness, and not from God. Truth does 
not vary one iota from that which is exactly true, and that 
should be our aim, as children delivered. 

In one sense there is only one way of delivering us 
from darkness to light, and that is through the cross of 
Christ. It is said of a certain married woman who had 
been living in adultery with a single man, that her con- 
science one time was awakened and she made up her mind 
that that kind of a life must now cease. She took from 
the wall of her own home a picture of the Crucifixion of 
Christ and laid it down before the door of her parlor, and 
then, when the door was opened and the young man was 
about to step in, he started back and said, "What means 
this picture on the floor?" She said, "Step right on it, 
and come in." "I will never do it," said he. "Yes, but 
you and I have been stepping on Christ and Him crucified 
for years, and I made up my mind that if you ever came 
into this house again you have got to step right on that 
Crucifixion." He stepped back and never entered. He 
turned his attention to Christ and Him crucified, gave his 
heart to God, and asked Him to make him clean ; and the 
wife from that day on proved to be true to her husband 
and family, and lived a clean life. Brethren, there is 



THIED SUNDAY IN LENT. 321 

absolutely no hope and no help except Christ and Him 
crucified for a dying world. 

III. These children delivered belong in a certain 
sense to the third class, which I shall now mention. In 
one sense there are only two classes of people; they are 
lost or saved; they are in darkness or light, but there is 
a difference between being delivered, and growing in 
grace, and consequently there is still a third class, the 
dear children: "Andw^alk in love, as Christ also hath loved 
us, and hath given Himself for us an Offering and a 
sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. But fornifica- 
tion, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it be not 
once named among you, as becometh saints ; neither filthi- 
ness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not con- 
venient : but rather giving of thanks." As I was reading 
this text over and over, meditating on it and praying over 
it throughout the past week, I wondered whether any of 
us belong to the third class or not. I do know that there 
are many children delivered, but how many of the de- 
livered children are dear children? How many Chris- 
tians are there to-day who loalk as Christ walked; who 
talk as Christ talked; who thank as Christ thanked? 
"And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath 
given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God 
for a sweet-smelling savor." 

1. Did you ever notice how Christ walked? He walked 
for thirty-three years on this earth Avith the special in- 
tention of walking up to Calvary's hill, and there with 
bleeding feet pour out His life's blood for you and me 
because He loved us. He walked from heaven above, 
where all things were His, and lay down on earth Avithout 
a pillow, slept in a borrowed grave, that He might make 
us rich. How many children of God to-day are dear 
children, that are actually willing to suffer for the Word's 
sake and for their salvation? How many of us are living 
a life of sacrifice? We sing about missions. We sing 
that we will go Avhere Christ wants us to go, and we will 
do what Christ wants us to do, but how many of us are 
Avilling, if necessary, to wear the home spun that we may 
21 



322 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

help bring the Gospel to the ends of the world? How 
many of us are willing to take the little idol of monej^ 
and consecrate it to God until we feel it? I do not be- 
lieve one of us feels what we are doing. It does seem to 
me that there is a Christianity which is very strange to 
us Christians. It does seem to me that there is a life for 
a Christian that is away above your preacher, away above 
the average Christian. I am not sure but that it is above 
all of them. Where is the man on earth that is walking 
as Christ walked? 

2. Where is the man on earth that is talking as 
Christ talked? Christ said some things that were very 
funny. When He pictures a man, the old Pharisee, walk- 
ing up to a little w^ater or wine and finding a little gnat, 
then pouring that water or wine through a sieve or 
strainer, in order that he might not touch the gnat, and 
then, 0]i the other hand, pictures that same Pharisee try- 
ing to swallow down a great big camel, hump and all, it 
makes one laugh. When the Lord Jesus Christ pictures 
to us the old Pharisee standing before us witli a large 
beam sharpened and run into one eye, and through his 
head, and the other end down on the ground like a log, 
trying to pick a little mote out of his neighbor's eye, if 
that were found in Puck it would make us laugh; but 
where do you ever find Christ saying a foolish thing? 
where do you ever find Christ sitting down and gloating 
over fornication, talking about bad people as if it were a 
joke? where do you ever find Him saying anything that 
was not for the bettering of humanity. We are taught 
as dear children, as follows : "But fornication, and all 
uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named 
among you, as becometh saints." In other words, we are 
to so live that these things are so foreign to us that they 
never enter into our conversation. "Neither filthiness, 
nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient." 
Did you ever analyze a joke carefully? Did you ever 
notice they never seem very funny unless they are a little 
bit filthy? And did you ever notice that things are not real 
funny unless they approach the sacred? Do you know 
why the theatre loves to have such a theme as "Our 



THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT. 323 

Pastor?" Because the devil always makes a thing look 
funny if it just concerns the preacher, and if you will 
notice the joke books carefully, and the funny conversa- 
tions, you will notice that nine times out of ten it takes 
a certain amount of sinning to make the people laugh. 
Where are the Christians that are keeping up on that 
plane where God wants them to-day? Stop saying things 
that Jesus Christ would not say! I do not know of 
any text that I have preached on for a year that makes 
me feel more humble and more sinful than this text to- 
night. There isn't a week that this text does not push 
me down from the dear children to the children delivered, 
and let us beware that we are not pushed down to the 
children of darkness. 

3. How many of us here tonight are thankful as 
Christ was thankful? When there were only five loaves 
of bread and two fishes among all that vast multitude, 
He thanked the Father in heaven. It made no difference 
where He was, He looked heavenward with thankful eyes. 
When He stood by the grave of Lazarus, His best friend, 
He thanked His Father in heaven. How many of you 
have stood by the graves of your dear ones and thanked 
God in heaven? How many of us are thankful as Paul 
was thankful? I am preaching tonight for the sole pur- 
130se of bringing those that are in darkness into light, 
those that are out of the kingdom of God into the king- 
dom of God, those delivered from darkness into the light 
of great kindness and goodness, righteousness and truth ; 
my purpose is to lead those that are delivered into the 
higher life, and may we tonight, by the help of God, strive 
to get up on the high plane, into another mansion of 
God's great house. Let not your hearts be troubled, ye 
f)elieve in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house 
are many mansions; if it were not so I would have told 
you. I go to prepare a place for you, and then I will come 
again and take you unto Myself, that where I am, there 
ye may be also. When you walk with Christ you walk 
from mansion to mansion ; when you talk as Christ talked, 
you go from mansion to mansion; when you thank as 
Christ thanked, you go from mansion to mansion, and thus 



324 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

you will be led, as one who can occupy only a little space, 
into the great universe of God. 

In conclusion, let us become true to the King of 
heaven. It is said of a certain Prussian officer, that when 
he fell on the battlefield and was sorely wounded, Pastor 
Woerth came along and saw him ; he saw the blood oozing 
from the newly struck wound ; he saw the heaving breast ; 
he saAv the pale lips and the cold sweat on his face, and the 
glazing eyes; he saw there was life in him, and he bowed 
down in sympathy, and said, "Dear oflflcer of the army, 
how are you getting along?'' And with his dying breath 
he said, "I am always getting along well when I go where 
the king sends me," and in a few moments he went home 
to the King of kings, and Lord of lords. Oh, may God 
help us tonight, whatever our trials are, wherever we are 
sent, whatever befalls us, let us be happy in Him, realizing 
that we are always getting along well when we go where 
the King sends us. Amen. 

(Congregation, led by pastor, repeats in concert the 
Apostles' Creed:) 

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of 
heaven and earth. 

And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who 
was conceived by the Holy Ghost; born of the Virgin 
Mary; suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead 
and buried. He descended into hell; on the third day 
He arose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, 
and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty ; 
from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the 
dead. 

I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy Christian 
Church, the communion of saints ; the forgiveness of sins, 
the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. 
Amen. 

PRAYER. 

Our heavenly Father, we thank Thee for the blessing of the hour. 
We thank Thee for this eternal epistle written by Thy great servant, 
Paul. And we pray Thee, O God, that this message of the Holy Spirit 
may tonight take hold of our hearts and our souls and show us the 
difference between children damned and children delivered, and the 



THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT. 325 

other difference between children dehvered and the children made 
dear. Do Thou help, heavenly Father, that our aim in life may be to 
walk in the foot-prints of our Savior, that we may talk as He talked, 
and thank as He thanked, and while we are now in the center of 
His footprints, may we pray the prayer which He so graciously taught 
us : 

Our Father who art in heaven ; Hallowed be Thy name ; Thy 
kingdom come ; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven ; Give 
us this day our daily bread ; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation; 
But deliver us from evil; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT. 
An Allegory. 
Gal. 4 :21-31. 

y^^^ELL me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the 
■ ^ law? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one 

^^^ by a bondmaid, the other by a free woman. But he who was of 
the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman 
was by promise. Which things are an allegory : for these are the two 
covenants ; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, 
which is Agar. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answerefh 
to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But 
Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For 
it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that barest not; break forth and 
cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children 
than she which hath an husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are 
the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh 
persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. Never- 
theless what saith the Scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her 
son : for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of 
the freewoman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bond- 
woman, but of the free. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved in the Lord : — 

Dr. Luther at one time said that he is a true Doctor 
of Divinity who is able to distinguish between the law 
and the Gospel. The law is the covenant of our God with 
regard to the duty that man has to Him and to his fellow 
men. The Gospel is the glad tidings that Jesus Christ 
has come into the world to save sinners, and through faith 
to make them forever blessed. It would seem at' first 
sight that it is a very easy matter to distinguish between 
law and Gospel, but the great truth is this, that the people 

326 



FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT. 327 

In this world are always confounding the one with the 
otlier. There are few people who know exactly whether 
such and such a verse in the Bihle is law, or whether it is 
Gospel. If I were to ask the question this morning, is 
this law or Gospel: '^'Blessed are the pure in heart, for 
they shall see God,'- I will dare say ninety per cent, of all 
Christians would say that it is Gospel, and yet it is all 
law. ^"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see 
God." I said a moment ago the Gospel is the good news 
that Jesus Clirist has couie into the Avorld to save sinners 
and through faith to make them forever blessed, and you 
might say, isn't that good news, that blessed are the pure 
in heart, for they shall see God? Yes, that would be good 
news if you and I were pure in heart. Is it good news 
to the colored man to say that the white man is free? Is 
tluit auy comfort to a man whose skin is black? Is that 
any comfort to you and me to know that the pure in heart 
shall see God, when we are not pure? The law demands 
perfection. The laAv demands purity, and without purity 
tlie law will give salvation to no man. If you were per- 
fect, you would not need a Savior. If you Avere perfect, 
you would not need Christ and Him crucified. If you 
were perfect, you could be sa^ed by the law. Now the 
people in Galatia were under Jewish influences, and 
although Paul had preached to them the pure Gospel of 
grace, half the time they did not know whether they were 
under the law or under the grace, constantly becoming 
confused on these two great truths. God is the author 
of the law and the author of the Gospel, but the law con- 
demns and the Gospel brings salvation. Great as is the 
dilference, they are united in God, united in love, and it 
IS a blessed thing when we are able to distinguish the one 
from the other. In order that the i)eople might be clear 
on this great subject, the apostle Paul goes back to Old 
Testament history and gives them the story of Abraham, 
of Sarah, of Isaac and of Ishmael and Hagar, and through 
these different personages tries to make clear to them the 
great difference between the law and the Gospel. "Tell 
ijie, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the 
law? For it is written, that Aliraham had two sons, the 



328 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

one by a bondmaid, the other by a free woman. But he 
who was of the bondwoman Avas born after the flesh ; but 
ho of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are 
^n allegory." I desire by the help of the Holy Spirit this 
morning to present to you 

AN ALLEGORY. 

An allegory is one thing described under the picture 
of another, and may you this morning get a distinction 
as you never did before between the law and the Gospel 
by studying the family of Abraham. With regard to this 
allegory, I would say. 

I. That Abraham represents God. Abraham was 
most intimately related to his whole family. He was the 
dear husband of Sarah; he Avas the dear master of Hagar; 
he was the dear father of Isaac and he Axas the dear 
father of Ishmael, and there was the most intimate rela- 
tion between Abraham and all of these personages. Abra- 
ham loved Sarah, he loA^ed Hagar, he loved Isaac and he 
loA^ed Ishmael. 

Just so there is a most intimate relation between God, 
and the law, and the Gospel. God gave us the law. He 
AA^rote it on the heart of Adam. God wrote the law with 
His OAvn linger and gave it to Moses on Mount Sinai. 
God's love runs through CA^ery commandment. Love the 
Lord your God w^ith all your heart, with all your soul, 
with all your mind, with all your strength, and your 
neighbor as yourself. You can see at once that the same 
relation obtains betAveen God and the Ten Commandments 
as existed between Abraham and his family. 

Not only is it true that God loves the law, and is the 
author of it, but he is also the author of the Gospel. It 
is said by a great theologian that the redemption of Jesus 
Christ and the doctrine of grace Avas the greatest discoA^ery 
that was ever made. Only God could have made that dis- 
covery for us, that man might be saved, solely by grace. 
The law comes and says, man, if you keep me perfectly, 
I will save you. God says, man, if you keep my law per- 
fectly by thought, word and deed. If you are sinless, heaven 



FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT. 829 

is yours. It is a covenant between God and man, and 
between the law and man. Not so with regard to the 
Gospel. The Gospel is a covenant that God makes with 
Jesus Christ. He says, My Son, if Thou wilt fulfill the 
law for Me, if thou wilt go down on earth and become 
man, and put Thyself under the law, and suffer death 
instead of humanity, as if Thou wert guilty ; if Thou then 
wilt ask the people to come unto Thee, those that labor 
and are heavy laden, and Thou wilt give them rest; if 
Thou wilt accept them by faith, then I will accept them 
as if they were Thou alone. In other words, the covenant 
of the Gospel is between God and Jesus Christ for the 
salvation of poor sinners alone by grace. These are the 
two covenants. God loves the one just as He loves the 
other, the same as Abraham loved his whole family. 

II. This allegory represents Sarah as the Gospel. 
She was Abraham's original wife. Hagar was only a 
handmaid. The Gospel is older than the law. You might 
ask a gTeat many people which is the older. Why, they 
would say, didn't God write the law on Adam's heart, 
and wasn't the Gospel promised in the garden of Eden 
after Adam sinned? Oh, dear friends, long before there 
was a law written in the heart of Adam, God carried us 
in Jesns Christ, before the foundation of the world was 
laid, and as far as the written law is concerned, long 
before God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses, we 
were to be saved as a race by the promise of the seed of 
the woman that should crush the serpent's head. Just as 
Sarah was the only and original wife of Abraham, the 
Gospel is older than the law, and the Gospel is God's 
plan to save the world. 

Again, it can be said of Sarah that she never was a 
slave, never Avas a bondwoman. So it is with the Gospel. 
The Gospel never asked a man to put himself under law 
and be a slave. The Gospel never said, do this and thou 
shalt be saved. The Gospel said, believe in the Lord Jesus 
Christ and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. Sarah 
never was a slave and she never became one. The Gospel 
never made slaves, and wants all people to be children 
of liberty. 



330 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

Agaiii, we find that Sarah was extremely beautiful. 
When Abraham went down to Egypt the king was bound 
to take her for his own wife, not knowing that she was the 
wife of Abraham, and very much disappointed was he 
when he learned that it would be impossible to have Sarah 
as the queen. She was represented as one of the most 
beautiful of women, and the very name suggests that she 
was lovely in looks and in character. Just so it is with 
regard to the Gospel. How beautiful are the feet of them 
that publish the Gospel of peace! There isn't anything 
more beautiful in all the world than the Gospel of Jesus 
Christ. It is the sweetest news that man has ever heard 
on eartb. There is nothing so pleasant, nothing so beauti- 
ful as the message of peace. Let man feel the w^eight of 
his sins and the curse of God resting upon him, and oh, 
how beautiful it is to hear the voice, Come unto Me, all 
ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you 
rest. When you feel that the curse of God ought to rest 
upon us, when we feel as if we ought to be going down 
deeper and deejDer under the awful burden that is holding 
us down, when we feel that God Himself certainly can 
never forgive us, then it is that we see the beauty in that 
beautiful invitation. Him that cometh unto Me, I will in 
no wise cast out. Oh, beautiful Sarah! Beautiful Gos- 
pd of Christ! 

Again we find that it took a long time before Sarah 
could have the child of promise. When the promise was 
fi rst given to Abraham that the seed of Sarah should mul- 
tiply and become like the stars in the heavens and the 
sands of the sea, they laughed for joy. Time passed on, 
year after year, and no son in the family. After ten years 
had passed by, Sarah became despondent and urged upon 
her own husband that at least half of the family might 
be represented, that he should take Hagar, and thereby 
bring into the family a son. This was fourteen years 
before Isaac was born. Ishmael was fourteen years old 
when the promised seed came into the world. Oh, how 
long, hoAv long it took before Abraham could look into 
the face of the promised son, Isaac! 

There we have a picture again of the Gospel. There 



FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT. 331 

are islands in the South seas where the Gospefl was 
preached for twelve long years before there was a single 
convert. We have instances in mission work where the 
Gospel was preached and preached and preached, by men 
that lived and died in the field, before there was a single 
soul confessed Christ, but all at once it was announced 
that a certain king became a Christian, or possibly only 
a little child accepted Christ, and in a short time the 
island was covered with Christians. So, my dear friends, 
we have a picture again of Sarah. Just as she had to 
wait and wait until the promised son was born, just so 
we have got to labor and pray and toil with some people 
before they Avill ever accept Christ. Oh, let us not grow 
impatient because there is some one in the family who is 
putting these things off day after day. I know it is a 
sad condition. I know it is a long year to wait for little 
Isaac when he was promised long ago, but just have a 
little patience. The Gospel of Christ is just like Sarah, 
sometimes very slow to bring forth Isaac, but remember, 
my friends, that Isaac today has enough followers in the 
world, that the}^ are like the sands of the sea, and like 
the stars in the heavens, as God promised. Here is the 
allegory that Sarah, as the wife of Abraham, is the rep- 
resentative of the Gospel of Christ. 

III. On the other hand, Hagar represents the law. 
She is pictured here in our text as a bondmaid, and as 
a slave, as one whose very name, Hagar, means Arabia, 
Mount Sinai, or the law. She was a handmaid and she 
always remained a handmaid. Never could Hagar say 
truthfully that she was the wife of Abraham. She was 
not an equal with Sarah, but she was in the same home, 
a servant, waiting and helping Abraham and his wife, 
Sarah. 

Just so, my dear friends, it is with the law. God 
never intended that the law should be the wife. The law 
is the schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ. The law is 
the servant that shall open to us our sins and shall show 
us our misery and hold down to us our condemnation, 
and make us feel our guilt, and make us cry out, What 
shall I do? and then, as a handmaid, she takes us and 



332 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

leads US to the cross of Calvary, leads us into the home 
of Sarah, leads us back to Abraham, and shows us the 
home of the Gospel. As long as the world stands, there- 
fore, the law will be only a handmaid and not the wife. 

Again, you will notice that although Sarah was the 
wife and Hagar was the handmaid, she bore the first 
child. Ishmael was born when Isaac had been promised 
ten years. In other words, he was born fourteen years 
before Isaac was. There, again, you have a picture of 
the law. The law has always got more children than the 
Gospel. The law always brings forth the family first. 
Every one of you were a legalist before you were a true 
Christian. The world today is full Qf legalists. Where- 
ever you look you will find the moralist that wants to be 
saved by his goodness, wants to be saved because he is so 
good and so much better than everybody else. When that 
Pharisee stood in the temple and thanked God that he 
Avas so much better than the poor publican, there you 
have a picture of the law's birth of a legalist. The world, 
I say, is full of these legalists today, and every man's 
own history shows that he is first an Ishmael before he 
becomes an Isaac. It is one of the hardest things for the 
Christian fully to settle, that he is saved alone by grace. 
That is the second birth, not the first. "Every man," said 
Whitefield, ''is born an Armenian.-' We might just as 
well truthfully say every man is born a moralist, a legal- 
ist, a Pharisee, and not until you get fully rid of self- 
righteousness can you be born an Isaac, a child of prom- 
ise. 

Again, we find that Hagar was always a slave, just 
as Sarah was always a true wife and never a slave. Hagar, 
on the contrary, was always a slave and never became a 
true wife. The laAv of God has always been making 
slaves, and always will. There are just as many people 
today trying to be slaves by the law as before; they are 
under bondage; they have no peace of conscience; they 
have no faith that will give them peace wherever they 
go. They are happy one day and depressed the next. 
Instead of trusting alone in the blood of Jesus Christ, 
they trust themselves. One day they think they are liv- 



FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT. 333 

ing just about right, and the next day everything is 
wrong, and the consequence is that you can drive them 
out at four o'clock in the morning to go to church and 
hear the mass ; you can drive them to the house of God 
for forty days and forty nights ; you can make them stand 
in the snow as one man in Europe did before the Pope 
for days, trying to get forgiveness. When a man is a 
slave you can make him do anything. The question arises, 
why cannot the Protestant Church build temples and hos- 
pitals and all these expensive buildings that the Eoman 
Catholic Church can? The difference is simply this: 
Isaac is a free man and never can be forced to do what 
Ishmaelj the slave, can. Hagar, slave, is a servant, and 
you can drive the servant with a stick. The legalist, con- 
sequently, is alwaj'S a slave; always in thralldom. 

We find Hagar not only Avas alwa^^s a slave, but she 
was a representative of Sinai, itself. We are told here in 
this Word : "Which things are an allegory ; for these are 
the two covenants; the one from the Mount of Sinai, 
which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this 
Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jeru- 
salem which now is, and is in bondage with her children." 
In other words, in the land of Arabia Mount Sinai is called 
Agar, and Agar in our language means a rock, a rough- 
toothed rock, which as Sinai, was where God gave the 
law to Moses. She being a true representative of Mount 
Sinai is a true representative of the Ten Commandments, 
always in bondage, asking of the world to do this and to 
do that to be saved, but never able to offer salvation itself, 
only an handmaid to lead us to Christ. 

IV. In this allegor}^ you will please notice, further- 
more, that Ishmael represents the legalist. As Sarah rep- 
resents the Gospel and Hagar represents the law, so 
Ishmael, as a son of Hagar, represents the legalist, the 
moralist, Avhile on the other hand, Isaac, as a child of 
Sarah, represents the true Christian. 

With regard to Ishmael, we will notice that he had 
a good father. Ishmael had the same father that Isaac 
had, and yet what a difference! So you Avill recognize 
at once that the same law that had God for its Father, 



334 THE ETERNAL JEPISTLE. 

also shows US the Father of the Gospel. God so loved the 
world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever 
believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting 
life. That same God said : I am the Lord thy God ; thou 
shalt have no other gods before Me. Just as these two 
little boys, both in the same home, could look into the 
same face and both say ^'Father" at the same time, so 
the law on the one hand and the Gospel on the other, 
can look up into the face of God and say "My Father." 

Ishmael not only had a good father, but he appeared 
the same as the real son. If a stranger had gone into the 
home of Abraham and had seen those two boys he would 
have thought they are real brothers. Both Avere circum- 
cised; both said 'father" to Abraham; both of them ate 
at the same table ; both of them looked as if the}' belonged 
to the same family, and yet there was a world wide differ- 
ence, for one was a son of the Avife, and the other was a 
son of Hagar, the bondwoman; the one was a free child 
and the other was a slave; yet, I say, in appearance, you 
could not tell the difference, and in many of their forms 
you could not tell the difference. Just so it is with regard 
to the legalist today. There are men under the law in- 
stead of under the Gospel, that go to church just as well 
as Christians do. They are careful about their language. 
You cannot tell from their general appearance but what 
they are the best of Christians, but all this time they are 
under the law, they are under bondage, and though they 
appear like the best of Christians, they are no Christians 
at all. 

We find in examining this history closely that 
Ishmael, at the age of fourteen, when the little brother, 
Isaac, was having a great festival day on account of a 
certain age, this older boj^ stood and mocked the weaker 
boy. In other words, Ishmael, the strong boy of four- 
teen, mocks the little child just weaned by the mother on 
that great festival day. There you have a picture of the le- 
galist. The legalist is always finding fault with the church 
member; he is always finding fault with the one that is 
under grace. The legalist always looks as if he were the 
strongest man in the world; he looks big and large as if 



FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT. 335 

he were far above the little child of promise. The legal- 
ist stands out before the world and says, See what I do! 
Watch my walk! Look at my strength, and then look at 
the confessed Christian, how weak and how little he is! 
It always has been so, that the legalist, the Ishmael, 
mocks the little weak Christian. 

Not only do we find that he is a mocker, but we find 
furthermore, that he could not be an heir and must be 
cast out. When that day came that Ishmael mocked 
Isaac, then Sarah arose as the mother of the home and 
said to Abraham, This thing has gone just far enough; 
Hagar despises me, your Avife, because she has got the 
big, strong boy, and that strong bo}^ despises our little 
Isaac; the time has come that you must let them know 
that Isaac is the only heir ; the time has come that you 
must take Ishmael and his mother and lead them out away 
from this home ; from today on there shall, be a separation. 
It hurt the father, Abraham. He loved little Ishmael; 
he loved Hagar, but the wife had the right in the home, 
and so he gathers up some bread and some water and puts 
it into tbe bottle made of skin in those days, laid that 
upon their shoulders and started them out into the wil- 
derness. In other words, they were not heirs; they were 
cast out. And just so, my friends, it will be with every 
legalist, no difference where he may be. The man that 
puts himself under the law instead of under the Gospel, 
has no peace, has no salvation, is not a child of promise, 
and the day will come when that man must be led away 
from God, on the Judgment Day, he must be cast out 
where tliere is no water; he must suffer as little Ishmael 
was suffering when the angel of God came and saved him 
from death. 

V. In this allegory we find, finally, that Isaac repre- 
sents the true Christian. Isaac was miraculously born. 
Sarah had reached that age where she had no right to 
expect a son, but God came and promised that in a cer- 
tain time she should bring forth a son, and that this son 
should be the father of a great multitude. Time passed 
on. This little child was born. His was a miraculous 
birth, and from that day forth he was to represent the 



336 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

new birth of every Christian. You and I can be born 
into this world, and by being born into it we can see it, 
and can walk in it, but only by being born miraculously 
from on high can we ever enter the kingdom of heaven 
and become heirs. So, then, we have here a picture of the 
Gospel that offers us the grace of regeneration, the new 
birth, as miraculous as the birth of little Isaac. 

We find, furthermore, he was a child of promise. As 
I said, God came and promised this son twenty-five years 
before he was born, and when he was born they had the 
assurance that this is the child that God promised so long- 
ago. On the day of Pentecost, when Peter preached that 
great sermon, he said, "Arise and be baptized, every one 
of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of 
sin, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, and 
this promise is to you and to your children." There you 
find what a Christian is. He is a child of promise. He 
that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. Oh, won- 
derful promise given to the children of God ! 

Furthermore, we find that Isaac was the only heir. 
When Abraham passed away, all that he had passed over 
into the hands of his only son, Isaac. And just so with 
the Christian. Though he may seem to be poor; though 
he at times may have no home of his own, he is neverthe- 
less very, very rich. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for 
theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Oh, what riches for the 
child of God! "He that believeth and is baptized shall 
be saved!" What more can we ask than to have salva- 
tion? Ye shall receive the crown of eternal life. Ye 
shall be the only heirs. 

Another beautiful thought we have in regard to Isaac 
is this, that he never left home; he was never cast out. 
As long as the father and mother lived, no one was more 
welcome than the little son, Isaac. Never did he have to 
take the bread and the water and dwell in the wilderness. 
He slept at home; stayed at home, and he is today yet at 
home with his Father in heaven. Thus you have a picture 
of the true Christian. The Lord accepts you as His child 
by grace; He takes you as His own; He takes you into 
the covenant which He never will break, nor do you need 



FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT. 337 

to break it. Be thou faithful unto death and I will re- 
ceive thee, and thou shalt receive the crown of eternal life. 
Be thou faithful through death. He that endureth unto 
the end shall be saved. 

Now, dear friends, the question arises today, Will you 
be a child of promise, or will you be a slave? Will you 
try to live under the law or under the Gospel? Will you 
live under the covenant of the law or the covenant of 
grace? Do you want to live so that finally God must cast 
you out as Abraham did Hagar and Ishmael, or will you 
live as a child of promise, trusting alone in the grace and 
mercy of Jesus, that you may stay at home while 'you live, 
with your God, that you may stay in our little Christian 
home, that you may stay in the Christian Church, that you 
may stay at home in heaven with your God, forever more?' 

I am but a stranger here 

Heaven is my home ! 
Earth is a desert drear ; 

Heaven is my home ! 
Danger and sorrow stand 
'Round me on every hand; 
Heaven is my Fatherland. 

Heaven is my home. 

What tho' the tempest rage? 

Heaven is my home 
Short is my pilgrimage, 

Heaven is my home 
Time's cold and wintry blast, 

Soon shall be overpast. 
I shall reach home at last. 

Heaven is my home ! 

Therefore I murmur not ; 

Heaven is my home ! 
Earth is but a dreary lot; 

Heaven is my home ! 
And I shall surely stand 
There at my Lord's right hand. 
Heaven is my Fatherland ! 

Heaven is my home ! 

Amen. 



338 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 



PRAYER. 

O God, our heavenly Father, we ask Thy rich and Divine blessing 
to rest upon the message of the hour. May we this morning, going 
back to Abraham's home, learn to know our Father better than we 
ever did before, and may we enter into that covenant of grace which 
shall make us a little Isaac instead of an Ishmael the son of the bond- 
woman. We pray Thee for the perfect liberty of the children of God, 
for the perfect peace that comes through justification by faith. Help 
us to trust alone in Jesus, the Son of God, who shall make us heirs 
of the heavenly Father's eternal life. Lord, our God, hear this prayer 
in the name of Him who taught us to pray: 

Our Father who art in heaven; Hallowed be Thy name; Thy 
kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven; Give 
us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation; 
But deliver us from evil; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT. 
The Spotless Sacrifice. 

Heb. 9 :11-15. 

BUT Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by 
a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, 
that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of 
goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the 
holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood' 
of bulls and goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, 
sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood 
of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot 
to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living 
God? And for this cause He is the Mediator of the new testament, that 
by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were 
under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise 
of eternal inheritance. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved Hearers in Christ: 

When we confess the second article of the Creed, we 
thereby acknowledge to the world Christ's person and 
Christ's office. As to His person, we confess that He is 
the God-man, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under 
Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried. We not 
only confess His person, but we confess His office. The of- 
fice of Christ is hinted at in the last verse of my text when 
it is said. And for this cause He is the Mediator of the 
New Testament, that by means of death, for the redemp- 
tion of the transgressions that were under the first testa- 
ment, they which are called might receive the promise of 
eternal inheritance. Jesus Christ has three official names : 
He is called the Prophet, the High Priest, and the King. 



340 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

During the season of Epiphany and Trinity the Church 
of God emphasizes His prophetic office, teaching us the 
great will of the heavenly Father as to our salvation. 
During the season of Easter we emphasize the kingly office 
of Him who conquered death and hell and ascended on 
high. During the season of Lent we emphasize the suf- 
ferings of Christ, the priestly office. It is in this season 
of the year, if any, that we all ought to meditate day and 
night on Christ going to Gethsemane, and to Calvary, and 
there, as the great High Priest, pouring out His life's 
blood that the world might not perish, but have everlast- 
ing life; and in this sacrifice we find Him giving up, not 
sheep, nor doves, nor cattle, but offering Himself, the 
Spotless Sacrifice. "How much more shall the blood of 
Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself 
without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead 
works to serve the living God?'' May the Holy Spirit 
belp us tonight to take a view of the Spotless Sacrifice 
that our consciences may be spotless, and that in eternity 
our souls and bodies may be spotless before Him who 
gave us 

THE SPOTLESS SACRIFICE. 

I. Let me invite your attention this evening to the 
Great High Priest. The High Priest of old was a man 
whom God had selected to stand between man and God, 
with a spotless garment, pleading and interceding for 
the forgiveness of his sins. God said further to choose a 
certain tribe of Levi, and from that family, the family of 
Aaron, among whom the eldest was to be the High Priest, 
and this High Priest was to wear a spotless white garment 
and plead for the forgiveness of the sins of the people, and 
with the blood of offerings go through the court, and 
through the Holy Place once a year into the Holy of 
Holies, and there at the ark of the covenant made with 
God, plead for the forgiveness of the sins of the world. 

Now, my friends, we have not only a high priest in 
the Old Testament, but we have a Spotless High Priest 
in the New Testament. No difference how perfect the 
sons of Aaron were, they were not spotless; they were 



FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT. 341 

sinful men, born of sinful women, and had the same 
battles to fight that other professed Christians have; but 
in the New Testament we have the Great High Priest. 
We are told in different books of the Bible about this High 
Priest, but nowliere as in the book of Hebrews do we 
find Him pictured so beautifully. Jesus Christ Himself 
is the Great High Priest, the spotless character, the spot- 
less One who walked on earth, for three long years stood 
before the people, criticized on all sides by His foes and 
looked upon by His friends, and after two thousand years 
of investigation the world has still to find the first spot 
on this Great High Priest. He stands before the Avorld 
to-day not only as one of the best characters, but as a 
perfect character. Even the ungodly world is forced to 
admit that there never Avas such a character on earth 
as Jesus Christ; but Jesus Christ was either the Son 
of God, or He was a bad character. Jesus Christ was 
either the Great High Priest or He was not a good man. 
Jesus Christ was either the only Savior of the world, or 
the greatest impostor that the world has ever seen. He 
has told us that He is the Son of God. He has told us 
that He is the resurrection and the life. He has told us 
that without Him no man can come home to the Father. 
If these things are not true. He was not a great character. 
If these things are not true He did not tell the truth, and 
if He did not tell the truth He is a spotted character in- 
stead of a spotless one. But the world admits that Jesus 
Christ was the most perfect character in all the world, 
and the Christian must admit that He was certainly spot- 
less, because He was conceived of the Holy Ghost, born 
of the Virgin Mary, and redeemed us, not with silver and 
gold, but with His holy, precious blood. This, my friends, 
is the Great High Priest that offered the spotless sacrifice. 
II. Let me invite your attention a few moments now 
to the Great Tabernacle. "But Christ being come an high 
priest of good things to come, by a greater and more per- 
fect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not 
of this building." You will not forget, my friends, that 
when Paul, or whoever wrote this epistle, penned these 
words, that the temple of Jerusalem was yet fresh in 



342 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

his mind, and you will not forget that the first taber- 
nacle was built by the order of God Himself, that the 
plans were laid by Him who put yonder stars in space; 
that the plans of the first tabernacle were made by Him 
who said, Let there be light, and there was light. The 
first tabernacle had a court, and from the court you passed 
over into the holy place where the altar stood, and beyond 
that was a veil, and beyond the veil, once a year we find 
the High Priest going into the Holy of Holies, there to 
find the ark of the covenant, having in it the Ten Com- 
mandments and Aaron's rod, and a pot of manna, and 
there, on that mercy seat, the Lord God met the High 
Priest and talked with him, in order that the world might 
have communion with God. That was the first tabernacle. 
In time there was built in the city of Jerusalem that great 
temple, that wonder of the world, that great monument 
of marble as it stood there in the days of Christ; and 
around the inside of the wall was the court of the Gentiles, 
where much business was done, and where the traffic 
was carried on between the Jews and those others who 
came there to buy and sell, and it was inside of that court 
of the Gentiles that we find the other court where the 
women assembled; and from there we step into the place 
where the priest stood and offered sacrifice; and from 
there we go into the holy place which was about thirty 
by sixty feet; and from the holy place through a veil 
that was seven or eight inches thick, which was rent on 
the day that Christ was crucified, back into the Holy of 
Holies, where the High Priest went once a year. The 
apostle who wrote this epistle, knowing that these men all 
understood about that building, calls attention to the fact 
that the spotless sacrifice does not consist of sheep, nor of 
oxen, nor of doves,, nor of any animal that sheds its blood, 
but that this great Spotless Sacrifice must be offered in 
a temple far larger than any temple that ever stood in tlie 
holy land. Oh, what narrow views we sometimes have 
of our church, and of our religion! The people of those 
days imagined that God Avas so little that He could be 
met only within the temple in that city in the holy land. 
So narrow minded were thej in those days as to imagine 



FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT. 343 

that the H0I3' Land contained about all the chil- 
dren of God that were in the world; but, says this 
great apostle, we have a great High Priest that has a far 
greater tabernacle than the one you see with your eyes 
and the one that you build with your hands ; I would have 
you to understand, says this great apostle, that there is a 
tabernacle so large that the court reaches out beyond the 
Mediterranean sea, the court reaches across the Atlantic 
ocean, crosses over to the America to be discovered, crosses 
the islands of the great Pacific, and comes on around 
through Asia and through all the nations of the earth, 
and extends from pole to pole. In other words, wherever 
you find a man on earth, wherever you find an immortal 
soul, this is but the court of the great tabernacle where the 
great High Priest is going to offer His Spotless Sacrifice. 

The old tabernacle had in the Holy Place a table on 
which they placed their shew bread every Sabbath, and 
on the other side the golden candle stick which was burn- 
ing day and night, with its seven branches; but, says 
the great apostle, I want you to understand that this great 
High Priest of whom I speak has already been in the 
court of the great temple for a period of thirty-three years, 
and there He started one day to offer the Spotless Sacri- 
fice, and passed, on His ascension day from the court 
through the holy place, and every star above the clouds, 
and every star beyond those that were seen by telescope, 
are nothing but the blazing lights of that great temple 
not built with hands. Oh, says this great apostle, the 
Son of God, the great High Priest, ascended on high, 
and passed the altar of sacrifice on Calvary's hill, and 
passed up, on ascension day, beyond the stars and zones 
of stars and whirling world systems; these are only the 
lamps of the great tabernacle ; He has gone up higher and 
higher, so high that when Paul was there one time in a 
vision he saw things that could not be mentioned here on 
earth. 

My dear friends, the tabernacle of the perfect Spot- 
less Sacrifice is the universe, and heaven is the Holy of 
Holies beyond the stars. For such an High Priest became 
us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, 



344 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

and made higher than the heavens ; who needeth not 
daily, as those high i)riests, to offer up sacrifice, first for 
his own sins, and then for the people's; for this He did 
once when He offered up Himself. For the law maketh 
men high priests which have infirmity; but the word of 
the oath, which was since the law, maketh the Son, who is 
consecrated forevermore. 

III. Now that Ave have seen the great tabernacle, 
and the great High Priest, let me invite your attention 
to the great offering. '^Neither by the blood of goats and 
calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the 
holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. 
For if the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of an 
heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying 
of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who 
through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot 
to God, purge your conscience from dead a\ orks to serve 
the liA'ing God?" Here we behold then the Spotless Sacri- 
fice! You remember that in Old Testament times it was 
necessary that they should take the lambs and pen them 
up at least fourteen days before the paschal lamb was 
offered in order that they might be inspected as to their 
perfection, but it is a question whether ever a lamb Avas 
offered on the altar before the old tabernacle or before 
the temple in Jerusalem that was entirely spotless; but 
here we have the spotless Lamb of God ; here AA^e have the 
spotless Christ offering Himself for the sins of the Avorld. 
You can now see why He is called the great High Priest. 
The old high priest was satisfied to saturate his hands 
with blood, but it wasn't his own blood, it aa asn't the blood 
of man; the old high priest put his hands upon the 
victim's head; he touched the blood, and with the blood 
on his fingers walked through the holy place into the holy 
of holies, and there plead Avith God, with the blood stains 
upon his hands, for the forgiveness of sins; but our great 
High Priest did not take the blood of animals; He took 
the blood of His OAvn body and Avent up to heaven, and 
there He pleads for the remission of the sins of the Avorld. 
We have an Advocate Avith the Father, Jesus Christ the 
righteous, and He is the propitiation for our sins, and 



FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT. 345 

Tiot for ours onl}-, but also for the sins of the whole world. 
Look at the Spotless Sacrifice! Jesus Christ goes down 
into the garden of Gethsemane, sweats drops of blood. 
What is the trouble with the Son of God? He is beginning 
to offer the spotless Lamb. He is the same One of whom 
John said after He was baptized, Behold the Lamb of 
God that taketh away the sin of the world! It is the 
spotless Lamb realizing that the time has come that He 
must bear the sin of the world. The lash is drawn across 
His back; he bears it all for the sins of the world. The 
officers of the Sanhedrin hit Him in the face with their 
fists ; He bears it all for the sins of the world. The minor 
officers come up and with open palms slap His face, but 
He bears it all for the sins of the world. Sin must act 
just as sinful as it can. The devil must act just as 
devilish as he can, and consequently he urges men to walk 
up and spit into the face of God, into the face of the very 
Lamb that is spotless, but He bears the crown of thorns, 
and takes the green tree and walks out, though He breaks 
down, in the state of His humiliation, because He is wil- 
ling to be offered for the sins of the world. He goes out 
on Calvary- s hill; one hand is nailed to the right, and 
the other to the left; His feet are drawn down and nails 
driven through Avhere the nerves center that the pain 
would be greater, and there, bearing the sins of the whole 
world, for all eternity, there He hangs for three long hours 
in the daylight, from nine o'clock until twelve, near the 
great city of Jerusalem, that the Avorld may see that this 
is the spotless Lamb of God, and hanging there during 
those three hours He prays for the forgiveness of those 
that nailed Him there; He prays for the salvation of him 
who hangs to the right; He there commends His own 
mother into the hands of John to watch over her until 
she comes home to Him. Then the sun went down at 
noon; then darkness spread over the earth; then it was 
that no one could see, because He was treading the wine- 
press of the wrath of God all alone ; there it was that He 
bore the sins and the hell of hells for all men, in order 
that we might escape. Was it for anything that He had 
done? No, He is the spotless Lamb. Was it for any crime 



346 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

that He had committed? No, for there was no spot in His 
character, but He so loved the world that He gave His 
life for His sheep. He was a good shepherd. He was the 
spotless Lamb, and when He bowed His head in death after 
crying out, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken 
Me?, after He had cried out. It is finished, He gave up 
His life as the Spotless Sacrifice, the Lamb of God that 
would make the Church of God sing in the future: 

"Rock of Ages, cleft for me, 
Let me hide myself in Thee 
Let the water and the blood 
From Thy riven side which flowed 
Be of sin the double cure — 
Save me. Lord, and make me pure." 

It was that Spotless Sacrifice that would make the 
Church of God sing in the future : 

"Alas ! and did my Savior bleed, 
And did my Sovereign die? 
Would He devote that sacred head 
For such a worm as I ? 

Was it for crimes that I have done 

He groaned upon the tree? 
Amazing pity, grace unknown. 

And love beyond degree ! 

Well might the sun in darkness hide 

And shut his glories in 
When Christ, the mighty Maker, died 

For man, the creature's sin. 

Yes, Christ, the mighty Maker, the spotless Lamb of God I 

Thus might I hide my blushing face 

When His dear cross appears. , 
Dissolve my heart in thankfulness 

And melt mine eyes to tears. 

But drops of grief can ne'er repay 

The debt of love I owe. 
Here, Lord, I give myself away 

'Tis all that I can do." 



FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT. 347 

It is all that I need to do. It is the spotless Lamb of God 
that has paid the debt. 

And now, in conclusion, this Spotless Sacrifice ought 
to make your conscience and my conscience spotless. 
•^How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through 
the eternal Spirit offered Himself Avithout spot to God, 
purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living 
God?""^ 

How many consciences there are that are not pure 
tonight! How many consciences there are that are 
troubling jou, and you have been trying to quiet that 
conscience for years; you have been trying to make your- 
self believe you are perfectly happy, but every now and 
then that conscience Avakens up again and says, you are 
of all men most dishonorable; you are going on through 
this world doing absolutely nothing for your Savior, ab- 
solutely nothing for the salvation of the world, you are 
letting everything go as it will, and you seem to think 
that after all it doesn't make any difference, when we 
come to die something Avill happen, something wonderful 
will be there, and Ave will at once be transposed from 
children of wrath to children of God. There is no use 
waiting for that last hour ; there is no use being imposed 
upon by the false teachings of all error; the thing for us 
to do is to remember that the Spotless Sacrifice on Cal- 
vary's hill was intended to purge us from our sins and to 
stir up conscience to do something, not because we shall 
be saved, but because Ave are saved. Paul, in another 
epistle said. Therefore Ave conclude that a man is justified 
by faith without the deeds of the laAv. Too many people 
in the present day are trying to get to heaven by their own 
works, trying to find their OAvn Avay up there, but those 
Avorks are dead. You might as well go out to yonder 
cemetery tonight and ask the dead people to come out 
on the streets tomorrow morning and walk, as to ask a 
man in his natural state to come to heaven; his works 
are dead ; he must become a new man ; he must have the 
Spotless Sacrifice to cleanse him of his sin ; he must under- 
stand that be is an object of mercy, saved alone by the 
spotless Lamb of God, through the eternal Spirit; and 



348 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

then, when he realizes he is an object of mercy, saved 
alone through the mercy of Jesus Christ, he ought to have 
his conscience purged and cleaned and started up to do 
something for the Lord God, purely out of thankfulness. 

HoAY can you, my friend, accept the Savior as your 
Savior, and know that He died for you as He did die, 
and then sit down and say, I am so glad that God saved 
me, and I am so glad He did it all, and now I will sit 
down and do nothing more; it is all done. That simply 
cannot be; it dare not be. The man that knows what 
Christ did for him must arise and say, My God, what can 
I do for Thee? Oh, can we not all arise tliis evening and 
make up our minds to render God a service such as we 
never did before? Why should a few people in every 
church do all the work? Why should a few people only 
go out and try to gather Sunday School scholars or try to 
bring in new church members, or work to bring people into 
the classes? Why cannot every immortal soul, saved by 
the Spotless Sacrifice of the Lamb of God, arise and walk 
in the footprints of Jesus, and bear his cross, and with a 
clear conscience shout out to a dyiug world. Come to 
Christ and be saved before it is too late ! 

There are two little phrases in my text tonight that 
ought to make an impression on every man : ^'Eternal re- 
demption,'' and "Eternal inheritance." When Christ died 
on Calvary He did not die for a little short life ; He died 
for immortal souls, and that redemption is an eternal re- 
demption for the purpose of giving to you and to me an 
eternal life. We are just about to add half a hundred 
new members to this church by confirmation; one or two 
more evenings shall we be together to give a final review 
of the great things that God has done for us as taught in 
Luther's catechism. There are some churches that im- 
agine if they once a year take in new members, and then 
sit down for eleven months more and do nothing, they 
have done their full duty. As I said the first time I 
preached from this pulpit, I believe in a truly Lutheran 
revival, and that should begin on the first day of January 
and never end. I believe that a true church of God that 
is awake should have a class ready to be instructed every 



FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT. 849 

time there is one confirmed. In one hour and a half 1 
found six men who wanted to be instructed in the next 
class; there ought to be sixty as well as six, and I noAv 
send out the invitation already, for the first Friday even- 
ing after Easter, be ready to come into the new class, be 
ready no difference who you are. I tell you, my friends, 
this country has become too full of the liglit of the Gospel 
for a man to sit in his home as a heathen. This world 
of ours is too full of the demonstration of the power of 
God for any ^^'oman to be a heathen mother. The Word 
of (Jod has demonstrated its power too much, and life has 
demonstrated itself in our own city as too short for men 
to i)ut off from year to year their eternal salvation. What 
right has any sane man, in a city where three men have 
dropped over dead in twenty-four hours Avithout a warn- 
ing, to wait and wait and wait, and make an eternal 
mistake, when there has been wrought out an eternal re- 
demption for their eternal inheritance? If I were a 
lawyer I would fight for my client if he were in the right ; 
if I were a Christian preacher, or Christian layman, I 
would fight for the salvation of souls; and yet we sit 
around as if this were an entertainment, as if God were a 
liar, as if there were no judgment to come, and no heaven 
and no hell. Brethren, the time has come that every man 
who confesses Christ as his Savior, should arise with 
power from on high, and urge men to come and accept 
the eternal inheritance Avrought out by the Spotless Sacri- 
fice in an eternal redemption. Amen. 

PRAYER. 

O God, our heavenly Father, Thou knowest that Thy Son is the 
Way, the Truth, and the Life, and that no man cometh to Thee but by 
Him. O Christ. Thou knowest that Thou art the only Savior of the 
world, and that the only way to be saved is by Thy redemption, or Thou 
wouldst not have died on Calvary's hill. O Holy Spirit, Thou knowest 
that there is no other hope, or Thou wouldst not plead the bleeding 
Christ to a dying world. Lord God, Thou knowest that it is a battle 
for a man by nature sinful to become a saved man and even to plead 
for the salvation of others. Are we not ourselves miracles of Thy mercy 
and grace ? Canst Thou not do for others what Thou 'hast done for 
us? Bless the message of the evening. Drive it deep into our hearts 



350 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

and consciences, and help that no house in this city may in the future 
have anything but a Christian family in it. Hear this our prayer: We 
ask it in the name of Jesus, who taught us to pray: 

Our Father who art in heaven; Hallowed be Thy name; Thy 
kingdom come ; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven ; Give 
us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation; 
But deliver us from evil; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



PALM SUNDAY. 
God's Mind. 
Phil. 2 :5-ll. 

LET this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who,^ 
being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal 
with God, but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon 
Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men ; and 
being found in fashion as a man. He humbled Himself, and became 
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also 
hath highly exalted Him. and given Him a name which is above every 
name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in. 
heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth ; and that every 
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God 
the Father. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved in Christ : — 

Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the 
Holy Ghost. All Scriptures given by inspiration of God 
is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for 
instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be 
perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. These 
two passages, and others which I might quote, sho^ 
us clearly that the whole Bible is the Word of the Holy 
Spirit. The first thing when you read a book is to find 
out the mind of the author; it isn't so much what is in 
this chapter or that chapter, on this page or that page, 
but when you have finished the book, what has the author 
intended to convey to the reader? In other words, you 
want the mind of the book, and when we study God's 
Word we do not study it with the view of finding out what 
Calvin's opinion was, or Zwingley's, or even Doctor Lu- 
ther's; we want to know exactly what the Holy 

351 



352 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

Spirit said ; we want the mind of God. In our text tonight 
the Holy Spirit directs us to the mind of God. Let this 
mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. May the 
Holy Spirit then help us this evening to behold 

THE MIND OF GOD. 

Let us get: 

I. The mind of God the Son; 
11. The mind of God the Father. 
III. The mind of God the Holy Spirit. 

I. In order that w^e may follow the words of our 
text, let us look first at the mind of Jesus. Let this mind 
be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in 
the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with 
God, but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon 
Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness 
of men ; and being found in fashion as a man. He humbled 
Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death 
^f the cross. 

1. What is the mind of Jesus Christ? We discover, 
first of all, that Jesus Christ knew He was the Son of God. 
Being in the form of God He thought it not robbery to 
be equal with God. There wasn't a time that Jesus Christ 
ever felt that He was robbing God if He said, I and the 
Father are One. Even as a little child in the crib of 
Bethleh'em, He knew that it was not robbery to say, Here 
lies the Son of God. What a glorious thought it is that 
Jesus Christ did not forget His Sonship, and what a 
glorious thing it is that you and I have the conviction 
from God's own Word that Jesus is the Son of God ! We 
know it from His names. None but God could be called 
Jesus, the Savior, Christ the Anointed, Lord of lords and 
King of kings. None but Jesus the Son of God could be 
called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the ever- 
lasting Father, the Prince of peace! When Thomas stood 
before Him one week after that first Easter evening and 
said. My Lord and my God! he recognized it was not rob- 
bery for Jesus to be equal with the Father. 



PALM SUNDAY. 353 

Not only do we know this from His names, but we 
tnow it from His attributes. Lo, I am with you always 
even unto the end of the world! None but God could 
say that. The Son of man hath power on earth to for- 
give sins I None but God could say that. The Father 
and I are One! None but God could say that. 

Not only do we know it from His attributes; we 
know it from His works. This Son of God who knew 
that it was not robbery to be equal with God, was the 
One that said to Lazarus, Come forth, and he came forth. 
He was the One that said to the man born blind. Be 
opened, and he saw. He was the One that said to the 
deaf. Hear, and he heard. His works demonstrate to the 
world that this is actually the Son of God, and that He 
did not assume any power He did not have, when He told 
us He and the Father are One. 

We know it from His honor. Twenty times in the 
New Testament honor is given to Him as the great Son 
of God. The grace that is to sustain us is to come from 
the Lord of glory. The mind, therefore, of Jesus, is that 
He is actually the Lord of lords and King of kings. 

2. Not only is it true that we have from His own 
mind that He is the Son of God, but that 'He became man. 
But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him 
the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of 
men. Born of the virgin Mary, of course He was man, 
called Immanuel, God is with us. Though He was born 
man, we find that Jesus Christ grew like a man. He was 
a child and afterwards grew in stature as well as wisdom. 
We find He had the infirmities of men; He looked like a 
man; was tired, hungry, thirsty, and slept, and when 
crucified He was numbered among the transgressors as a 
man. There is no question, therefore, at all about the 
fact that He did become man, and made Himself of no 
reputation. It is said of Peter of Eussia, when his country 
was in total ignorance of even many things she knows 
today, he went over to England, and Holland, and Ger- 
many, as a poor traveler, not letting the people know that 
he was Emperor. In Holland he put on a common laborer's 
23 



354 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

garments, took and axe, went to the woods and began 
to chop with the other laborers; but when his day's work 
was done and he would come in, then as Emperor he 
would write letters back to his own country. The fact 
that lie did not walk around in those foreign countries 
as emperor, did not rob. him of the truth that he was an 
emperor. An emperor is not made by clothing, nor does 
he lose his emperorship because he puts on an older gar- 
ment. Because Jesus Christ in all His glory came down 
on earth and made Himself of no reputation and took 
upon Himself the form of a servant, did not rob Him of 
divinity, but at the same time it does prove that He did 
become a man, and dwelt among men as a servant. 

3. He became an obedient servant — obedient unto 
death, and in the state of His humiliation He goes on 
down from His conception, even to the grave. Was it not 
a humiliation on the part of Jesus Christ to be conceived 
of the Holy Ghost and born of the virgin Mary? Was it 
not a letting down of the Son of glory to lie in a little 
crib on the straw^, when He Himself held the stars in all 
their glory in His hand? Was it not a state of humilia- 
tion on the part of this great Son of God to become so 
little that He lies on His mother's bosom? Was it not 
a state of humiliation for Him to stand before Pontius 
Pilate, and before Herod, to be mocked and scourged? 
There are two ways of opposing Jesus. The one is to op- 
pose Him like the Jews did, and spit in His face, and 
buffet Him; but there is another way of mistreating the 
Savior, and that is to do as Pontius Pilate did, and look 
upon Him cowardly, or, like Herod tried to do, use Him 
for entertainment. I do not know which hurt the Savior 
more, to walk up and slap Him in the face, to spit in His 
face, to buffet Him, or to treat Him as Herod did. When 
He stood before the Sanhedrin, He answered their ques- 
tions; when He stood before Pontius Pilate, He gave an 
answer to the only question put to Him, as to whether 
He was the King of the Jews ; but when mocked and used 
simply to entertain before Herod, He stood perfectly 
silent. What pain must have passed through the very 
heart of Jesus when He saw how men were trying to play 



PALM SUNDAY. 355 

fool with Him! He became a servant, humiliated more 
and more, until at last He hangs on the cross, and there, 
bleeding and dying, for six long hours, the Savior became 
the obedient servant that went down to death. 

4. Not only do we find that this was the mind of 
Jesus, to become humiliated and to go down to the grave, 
but we find that He was willing to accept the cross as 
His monument. And being found in fashion as a man. 
He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, 
even the death of the cross. We generally say, in ex- 
plaining the Apostles' Creed, that the humiliation of 
Christ ended with His burial. The apostle here says 
nothing about the burial, nor is it necessary. When He 
said on the cross, It is finished! when Joseph of Arima- 
thaea, and Mcodemus came and took His body off of the 
cross and laid it down in a borrowed grave, the apostle 
looked upon that cross as the tombstone, as the monument, 
for the grave in which Jesus lay. True it was that in 
the grave ended His humiliation. It was a humiliating 
thing upon the part of Jesus Christ to allow Himself 
to be laid in a borrowed grave. I look into the faces of 
so many sitting before me tonight who, during the past 
years, have laid some oi their own dead away to sleep. 
How would you feel tonight if you knew that your hus- 
band, or your little daughter, ar your little son, were 
sleeping in a borroAved grave? You stand by the grave 
and weep, but you have the comfort of knowing that it 
is father's grave; it is mother's grave, it is my little 
daughter's grave, it is my little son's grave; but the world 
had to stand before the grave of Jesus and say, it is not 
His; it belongs to Joseph of Arimathaea. Oh, how poor 
our Savior became, that He might make us rich! And 
this, my friends, is the mind of Jesus. It was His good 
mind not only to remember that He was the Son of God, 
not only to become a man, but to become obedient unto 
death, and accept the cross as His monument, and where 
is there a more beautiful monument today in the world 
than the cross of Calvary, standing at the head of that 
I)orrowed grave? 

II. Now that we have the mind of the Lord Jesus, 



356 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

let US ulso try to get the mind of His Father, namely, 
of God, our heavenly E'ather. Wherefore God also hath 
highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is 
above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee 
should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and 
things under the earth; and that every tongue should 
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God 
the Father. 

1. Here we get the mind of our heavenly Father, and 
His mind is to exalt the Son who was humbled ; His mind 
is to lift up the Son Himself, and to exalt His name, that 
every tongue should confess Him, and every knee should 
bow before Him. It was the mind of the heavenly Father 
to take that Son that went on down to the bottom of the 
grave, and lift Him up. While Jesus said, I will go down 
to the world, and I will go down to death, and I will go 
down to the bottom of the borrowed grave to save human- 
ity, to show My love and pay the awful debt, the Father 
said, Son, let this be Thy mind, but My mind shall be to 
put My hand under Thy body and lift Thee out of the 
grave; My mind will be to take Thee after forty days 
on earth and lift Thee up, past the stars, and zones of 
stars and whirling world systems, past the very gates of 
heaven, up to the throne, and put Thee above every other 
being in all the universe. Wherefore God also hath highly 
exalted Him. 

Not only was it the mind of the Father that Jesus 
Christ in person as the God-man should ascend to the 
throne on high, but it was His mind that this exaltation 
should begin with His descent into hell, as we confess in 
the creed, and then ascend to heaven, and sit on the right 
hand of God the Father Almighty, from thence He shall 
come to judge the quick and the dead. It was the mind 
of our Heavenly Father that His Son, though dying on 
Calvary, should stand at the gates of hell as a mighty 
King, conquer death and the devil and all hell. It was 
the mind of our heavenly Father that this Son of His 
should stand in the presence of His disciples, and, start- 
ing heavenward, should be seen as He passed out of sight. 
It was the Father's will that He should be the miglity 



PALM SUNDAY. 



357 



King, expressed by the Avords 'right-liand of God' and rule 
the whole world, and especially be King of grace and 
King of glory. It was His will that He should come 
with all His holy angels on the last great day to show 
that those that are still living, as well as those that are 
dead and in their graves should come before His last 
assize to be held on high. This is the mind of the Father. 
2. But the mind of the Father was not only going 
to lift up the Son, but lift His name up. And give Him 
a name which is above every name. There was a time 
when the name of Jesus seemed to be ridiculed; there 
was a time when the people pointed at the cross and said, 
Here is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews! There 
was a time Avhen Pontius Pilate unconsciously wrote a 
prophecy that this King should be known and read in 
three languages, to show that the Gospel should be 
preached to all the world. There Avas a time when men 
like the Ai)ostle Peter did not have the courage to say 
that they were followers of this humble Christ; but God 
the Father said, I Avill take that name that some of you 
seem to be ashamed of, and I aaHI lift that name above 
every name. Oh, my dear friends, compare the name of 
Jesus tonifirht with anv other name in the world, and 
see hoAv it ascended away up on high. Who, for a mo- 
ment would think of comparing Alexander the Great 
with Jesus, or Caesar with Jesus, or any of the apostles 
with Jesus, or a Luther or any reformer, with Jesus ; 
who Avould think of comparing the name of any angel 
with the name of Jesus? That beautiful name stands 
high aboA^e every name in all the universe; and who put 
it there? God the Father. That was His mind. 

3. Not only was it God's mind to lift that name 
above every other name and make it the sweetest name 
to be uttered by tongue or angel, but it Avas His mind 
that CA^ery knee should exalt His name and His person. 
That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of 
things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under 
the earth. The word "things" is here in italics, and you 
know it is not in the original language. The strict read- 
ing- of this Averse would be, That at the name of Jesus 



358 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

every knee in heaven and in earth and under the earth 
should bow. God the Father intended to bend as it were 
His own knees before His own Son, and say, I exalt 
Thee; He intended that Gabriel should come before Him, 
and all the hosts of angels, and they should bow their 
knees before Him, the mighty King that went down to 
death; it was His intention that every prophet, and every 
apostle, and every saint on high shall come before the 
King of kings and Lord of lords and boAv their knees be- 
fore Him; it is His intention that every living creature 
on earth, no difference how much they scoff now, no dif- 
ference how much they ridicule the Church or the people, 
or anything that is good and holy, it is the very mind 
of the heavenly Father that ever}^ knee, no difference 
how stubborn it may be today, shall bend before the 
mighty Christ, who humbled Himself and became obedi- 
ent unto death. It is the mind of our heavenly Father 
that men must bow before Him, and not only those that 
are on the earth, not only the living, but it is the mind 
of God that every knee that sleeps at the bottom of the 
sea, that every knee that sleeps down under the earth, 
in the grave, that every knee that has been reduced to 
ashes by fire, that every knee shall be raised up from 
the dead, and when it is raised up, shall bend before the 
mighty King of kings and Lord of lords. 

4. We have in our text tonight this beautiful dem- 
onstration of the mind of God, our heavenly Father, 
that not only every knee shall exalt Him, but that every 
tongue shall do so, and that every tongue shall confess 
that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 
Notice well, it is not said that every knee shall acknowl- 
edge Him as Savior, or that every one shall bow before 
Him and say. Thou art my Redeemer and Savior and I 
am Thine; not that, but it is the mind of our heavenly 
Father that every knee shall bow before Him and con- 
fess that He is Lord, to the glory of the Father. It is 
the mind of our heavenly Father that the devil hiDiself 
must confess that Jesus Christ is Master. It is the mind 
of our heavenly Father that every fallen angel must not 
onlv bend the knee, but must sav in the hearino- of the 



PALM SUNDAY. 359 

Avliole world, He is the only Lord of lords and King of 
kings. It is the mind of our heavenly Father that every 
Voltaire, every Ingersoll, every Hume, and every man 
that has ever said a word against Jesus Christ, shall 
stand before Him, and the Father will say, Bend your 
knees I and down they go. Now speak! and they must 
speak and say what they never said before, This is, after 
all, the Lord of lords and King of kings. Every tongue 
must exalt Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 

HI. We have also the mind of the Holy Spirit. 
Just previous to our text it is said: If there be, there- 
fore, any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, 
if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, 
fulfil ye uiy joy, that ye be like-minded, having the same 
love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be 
done through strife or vain-glory ; but in lowliness of 
mind let each esteem others better than themselves. 
Look not every man on his own things, but every man 
also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, 
which was also in Christ Jesus. Here you discover that 
the mind of the Holy Spirit is that we as Christian peo- 
ple should have one heart, one mind, one love, and learn 
all this from the mind of Jesus Christ. As I said in the 
beginning of my sermon, I say again: Holy men of God 
spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. The hand 
that wrote these words, Let this mind be in you, which 
was also in Christ Jesus, was moved by the Holy Spirit, 
and the mind of the Holy Spirit is that you and I shall 
have the mind of Jesus Christ. 

1. Xow, if we have the mind of Jesus Christ, we 
must not forget our value. In all His humiliation Jesus 
Christ never forgot that He was the Son of God. He 
did not rob God of His glory when He said, I and the 
Father are one. In the same sense you and I must not 
forget Avhat we are — must not forget our value. Jesus 
said of you and of me. What shall it profit a man if he 
shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul, or 
what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Do you 
wonder why Jesus Christ poured out His blood on Cal- 
vary? Pray tell me, how else could we be redeemed? 



360 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

You lost, as a single soul, means more than a world lost. 
If it were possible that tomorrow morning the papers 
would print that all Europe sank below the sea, the 
world would fall down on its knees and ask God for 
mercy, and yet if all Europe should sink, it would be 
nothing compared Avith your value as an individual soul ; 
and if Jesus Christ had to die to save you and to save 
me, and to save the fourteen hundred millions of people 
living tonight, to say nothing of the billions that have 
passed into eternity long ago, and the millions that shall 
yet be born, pray tell me, Avhere in all the universe is 
there a price able to pay this debt, outside of the only 
Son of God? Therefore, my friends, have the mind of 
Christ Jesus, and know your value, and never forget it. 
It is a terrible thing for a man to let himself go on with- 
out being saved ; it is a terrible thing for a man to forget 
what he is' worth ; it is a terrible thing for a man just 
because he has not got quite so much money as some one 
else, or because he has not got so much fame as another 
man, to think he amounts to nothing and let himself sink 
into hell. Have the mind of Christ Jesus, and in all 
humility do not forget what you are worth. 

2. Also like the Savior, Jesus Christ, do not forget 
to be a servant. Hoav many people there are that want 
to be lords. So manj?^ young men in the present day 
seem to think if they can just sit in an office, touch a 
button and give some one a command, that it is great. 
How many young men in the present day seem to think 
it is so little to be a servant. The truth of it is that 
there isn't a real genuine man on earth that doesn't rec- 
ognize the grandeur of being a servant. The president 
of the United States is a servant of the people. There 
is not a man on earth that is not a servant, if he is a 
true man. I would, therefore, wish you to have the mind 
of Christ Jesus, and instead of asking yourself the ques- 
tion all the time, how can I lord it over this one or over 
that one, let the question be this, how can I serve this 
little child, or how can I serve this poor fallen being; 
how can I, like my Savior, lift up the world by going 



PALM SUNDAY. 361 

down myself? The Holy Spirit's mind is that you and I 
shall have the mind of Jesus Christ. 

3. Not only should we be servants, but should not 
forget to have our hearts filled with love. Fulfil ye my 
joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being 
of one accord, of one mind. Oh, that we had a little 
more of the love of Jesus in our hearts! that we would 
all go down and served humanity with that love that 
drove Jesus from His rich throne on high to become an 
humble servant, ready to lie in a borrowed grave. Let 
us have the mind of Jesus Christ, and let us have some 
of the love of Christ in our hearts, and reach out, and 
down, and try to lift humanity. 

4. Finally, Is it iDossible for a Christian church to 
have the mind of Jesus Christ and then try to be aristo- 
cratic? Isn't an aristocrat a nobleman? And where 
was there ever such a nohle nobleman as Jesus? Is it 
possible for a man to be a true Christian and then look 
around for a place where he can meet among people 
that are away up and are not willing to come down? For 
my part, I say the Christian church should have but one 
mind, and that one mind must be the mind of the Mas- 
ter, and the Master's mind was, I will go down, down, 
down, to the very gates of hell, that I may lift people 
up to heaven; and that same mind must be in the Chris- 
tian minister; that same mind must be in the Christian 
church, and just as soon as a Christian church overlooks 
this great truth that we must be the church that is will- 
ing to go down and lift up the people, that we are willing 
to make the poor feel at home in our midst, just so soon 
we get away from the mind of Jesus and cannot prosper. 
If, therefore, our own individual congregation is to pros- 
per, let us keep up the good spirit planted by those who 
have stood where I now stand and whose bodies sleep in 
the dust of the earth. Let us be the people's church. 
Let every man and every woman feel at home here, no 
difference how poor they may be, no difference what has 
been their past, let us not go down to them; they have 
immortal souls, valuable in the sight of God; and thus 



362 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

we will get the mind of Christ as individuals, we will 
have it as a church, and, having it as a church, it will 
be like Christ Himself living in our midst. If Jesus 
Christ is the Light of the world, as He says He is, and 
if His children are the lights of the world, as He says 
they are, then they must be the reflection of the Master ; 
they must do what Jesus would do. What would Jesus 
do if He lived in Mansfield? What would Jesus do if 
He were a member of this church, or if pastor of this 
church? Oh, my dear friends, if we would all do as 
Jesus did, we would go on down, down, until God would 
lift us up and those that are with us. May God help 
us tonight to have the mind of Jesus Christ. May the 
Father in heaven show us the exaltation that will come 
to us hereafter by the exaltation that He gave to Jesus; 
and may the Holy Spirit pour down deep into our hearts 
the love of Jesus for humanity, and make us willing to 
suffer that all might live eternally. This is my prayer, 
and may God bless these words to our eternal good. 
Amen. 

PRAYER. 

Our Father in heaven, we thank Thee for the mind of Jesus Christ, 
who, though He was Son of God, was willing to become man, made Him- 
self of no reputation, but became a servant and was obedient unto 
death, and accepted the cross as the monument at the head of a bor- 
rowed grave that we might escape death, and have everlasting life. O 
Father in heaven, we thank Thee for Thy mind that has seen fit to lift 
up Jesus Christ and exalt Him in person, to exalt His name, and make 
every knee exalt Him and every tongue confess His exaltation. O 
Thou Holy Spirit, we thank Thee that Thou hast come into our midst 
and hast given us the command that we have the mind of Christ Jesus, 
and if each of us has this mind, we will all have the same mind, and we 
pray to Thee Father that this' mind may be one in heart and one in love, 
that the good of humanity may be in this mind, and that by Thy 
grace we may lead them all to Him who conquered death that we 
might have everlasting life. Heavenly Father, do Thou bless the service 
tonight; bless Thy servant in the message He has delivered, and may 
it find good ground in the hearts of all those who have come to this 
temple this evening. Lord our God, help us to sum up all in this, Thy 
prayer, when we pray: 

Our Father who art in heaven ; Hallowed be Thy name ; Thy 
kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven; Give 



PALM SUNDAY. 368 

us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation; 
But deliver us from evil; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



CONFIRMATION SERMON. 

Jesus' Jewels. 

Mal. 3:16-18. 

€HEN they that feared the Lord spake often one to another; and 
the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance 
was written before Him for them that feared the Lord, and that 
thought upon His name. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of 
hosts, in that day when I make up My jewels; and I will spare them, 
as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Then shall ye return. 
and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that 
serveth God and him that serveth Him not. 

• Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 

Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Dear Class and Christian Hearers: 

The Lord Jesus Christ was so rich that He was the 
only heir of heaven and earth, and yet on that Palm 
Sunday He rode into Jerusalem as King without any 
golden rings on His fingers, Avithout any jewels about 
His neck, on a borrowed animal, and rode over borrowed 
clothing. The palms that were scattered before Him were 
palms of honor, given to Him by greater jewels than 
ever could be given to wear. Those people that cried out 
along the highway, Hosanna to the §on of David I Blessed 
is He that cometh in the name of the Lord! were largely 
children and people who came to the Passover to offer 
sacrifice to the true and living God, and they had in them 
immortal souls. They were jewels for which God was 
looking. During the past year the largest diamond that 
has ever been discovered, has been found. It is estimated 
at four millions of dollars value. Oh, how many people 
would love to have a little piece of that diamond set in a 

364 



CONFIRMATION SERMON. 365 

ring to wear on their fingers! In our own city a few 
weeks ago a great effort was made to obtain a ring that 
had a little diamond in it. Now what that little diamond 
was to the ring, your own souls are to the circle of this 
earth. Who cares for the ring if he can get the diamond, 
and who cares for a little ground in this Avorld if the im- 
mortal soul which in God's sight is called a jewel, shall 
be his? The Lord, speaking of these immortal souls says, 
And they shall be Mine, saith the Lord, in that day when 
I make up My jewels, and I Avill spare them as a man 
spareth his own son that serveth him. Dear class, I 
would have you to remember this morning that your own 
souls are more valuable than all the world, for what shall 
it profit a man if he shall gain the world and lose his own 
soul, or what shall he give in exchange for his soul? I 
address you therefore this morning as 

JESUS'' JEWELS. 

I. On earth. 
II. On the Judgment Day. 
III. In heaven. 

May God the Holy Spirit help me this morning to say 
a word that shall hold these jewels in their places in God's 
merciful hand until they shall be His on the other side 
of the Judgment, in heaven above, is my prayer, 

I. Usually the jewels that we see have been mined 
and marked. Whence come these jewels sitting before 
me to-day? They, too, have been mined, and God has put 
His mark on them by which they shall be known even on 
this earth. Whence have you been mined? Listen to the 
words just preceding my text: Your words have been 
stout against me, saith the Lord. Yet ye say. What have 
we spoken so much against Thee? Ye have said, It is vain 
to serve God; and what profit is it that we have kept 
His ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully be- 
fore the Lord of hosts? And now we call the proud happy ; 
yea, they that work wickedness are set up ; yea, they that 
tempt God are even delivered. 



366 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

1. Ye have said, It is vain to serve God. Notice the 
black foil around these jewels. Usually we find that 
jewels are set forth the brighter because of the darker foil 
around them. The question arises this morning, Where 
did God get this large class? Where did He mine you? 
From what kind of a world did He bring you out? And 
the answer is, that back of these jewels lies the dark foil 
of sin, from which you have been brought out by the means 
of grace. You, yourself, have undoubtedly said many a 
time, it is vain to serve God. Let me ask you this morn- 
ing whether you have always been willing to study God's 
Word as you should. Have you always been willing to 
listen to God's Word and pray to have more knowledge 
of the truth, or has there not been a time in your own life 
— now be honest as you sit before me — has there not been 
a time in your own life when you have been rather care- 
less and reckless, putting off from day to day what should 
have been done long ago? Haven't there been times when 
you said, what is the use to be a church member? Haven't 
there been times in your life when you said, what is the 
use to go to God's house, and what is the use to hear 
God's Word, and what is the use to go to Sunday School, 
and what is the use to go to catechetical instruction? 
Boys, do you remember just a few months ago how glad 
you were to escape my class? Don't you remember how 
you would rather have played ball, or run and wasted your 
time, and even deceived your own parents, than to sit here 
and hear God's Word? Haven't there been times in your 
own history when you have even scoffed possibly a little 
bit at things that were good and holy? Haven't there been 
times in your life when you said, what is the use of this 
religion? Haven't there been times when you said, the 
church members are hypocrites, any way? Haven't there 
been times when you were rather going the road, that 
if we would all go that way there would be no church and 
no preaching of the Gospel, no holy baptism in our midst, 
no Lord's Supper? Brethren, if it is right for you or 
for any one else to sit at home on Sunday morning like 
this, in health and strength, and not hear God's Word, 
then it is right that I should be away from this pulpit; 



CONFIRMATION SERMON. 367 

then it is right that all these Christians should take their 
hats and go home; then it is right that we should tear 
down God's house and stop praying and stop teaching, and 
all live like heathen and go to the devil. Whence did 
God mine these jewels? Oh, I am not surprised at all at 
what you have said and done in the past, born in sin, some- 
times surrounded Avith careless homes and careless en- 
vironments, with voices saying. Come, come out into the 
world, and eat, drink, and be merry, with a thousand 
forces trying to draw you to destruction; the miracle of 
miracles this morning is not that Jesus turned water into 
wine, not that He made blind men to see, not that He 
raised Lazarus from the dead, but the miracle of all mir- 
acles is this, that you as a class are sitting here today 
as God's mined jcAvels out of the dark and sin cursed 
world. 

And how has He mined you? How has He changed 
your mind about these things? He did it through the 
means of grace ; He did it through the Word of God. The 
Christian people prayed, and prayed, that God might bring 
you into His kingdom. You heard a sermon some time 
or other, some Avhere, that made an impression on you. 
Somewhere or other God's hand reached down and took 
hold of you as it never did before, and said, Now stop 
and think. SomeAvhere or other the pick went down into 
the ground and found the rich diamond that has been 
found within the past year, and God's eternal law thun- 
dered into your conscience and into your soul, and said. 
Now is the time to change; now is the time to turn; now 
is the time to serA^e God Almighty. Life is here, now ; to- 
morrow it may not be; the Judgment is coming; the priv- 
ilege is here now to serve my God and Master; and there 
was a moment in your life when you said, either aloud, 
or you thought it. My God, I am Avilling to be mined. It 
is God that quickeneth in you both to will and to do of 
His good pleasure. And so He mined you as jewels out 
of the dark, sin cursed Avorld, and brought you step by 
step to the true life, so that you are now sitting here; 
you now love to give yourself entirely to God; you now 
love His Word and feed on it, and this Word to-dav is 



368 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

as sweet to your souls as good bread is to your bodies 
when you are hungry. God has done it all. Praise to 
His holy name! God's jewels! 

2. Notice the marks the Holy Spirit puts on His 
jeAvels. You have noticed, dear class, how people mark 
their silver and gold and precious gifts, so that they can 
ahvays identify them. Thus God marks His jewels that 
He can see them from heaven and they can be known on 
earth. He puts four marks on them. 

a. They fear God. A child that loves his parents 
fears every day that he might do something to otfend 
those parents. Such a filial fear God's jewels must al- 
ways have. The more you fear God the less you will fear 
man. It has well been said that one, with God on his 
side, is a majority. Dear children, wherever you are, 
whatever the world says, whoever opposes you, under 
all circumstances, and if it costs your lives, please God, 
and fear Him. 

6. A second mark. They are not yoked to^etlier 
with unbelievers. God says, when the unbelievers were 
ridiculing the wishes of Him, Then they that feared the 
Lord spake often to one another. They could not bear 
to be in the company of scoffers. Dear class, mark what 
I say, you cannot have the company of children of the 
devil and be God's jeAvels. Preachers and church mem- 
bers may be yoked with unbelievers, but God's jewels 
never. We are living in a sinful Avorld, and among sin- 
ners, but jewels must remain jewels, and remain together. 
God expects you from this day to live in single or mar- 
ried life with His jewels. God does not want you to call 
a child of the devil your brother. 

c. A third mark. They come together often and en- 
courage each other to be faithful to God until death. How 
we love to meet our old schoolmates! But you are more 
than schoolmates; you have come together for nearly one 
year to prepare to remain together forever ; this is the be- 
ginning of an eternal school ; to-day you expect to make 
a vow to be faithful to God until death. You should be 
more than friends; you should take such an interest in 
each other on your heavenly journey that you will never 



CONFIRMATION SERMON. 369 

lose sight of each other. Eemember your class. Let each 
one keep a constant watch over the rest. Let none fall 
back on his journey because he is weak in the faith. Last 
winter some hunters in the west left one of their number 
lie in the snow to die while they went on to save their 
own lives. They w^ere severely condemned by the press 
for not rescuing the weak one. Stand by each other until 
death. If one fails to come to the house of God; if one 
fails to be found at this altar when the Lord gives His 
supper, then go after him, and pray for him, and by no 
means let God's jewel be stolen by the devil. Do not 
treat each other like strangers. Do not forget to follow 
after the Lord Jesus. 

d. A fourth mark. They keep God in mind. They 
thought upon His name. If you do not think more of 
God, you have no right to think that you are God's jewels. 
Feed your mind on God; study His Word in the Sunday 
school; let nothing but a reason that would satisfy God 
keep you from His service; buy good Christian books and 
meditate on them; read them at home; read the name of 
God on every leaf and every blade of grass, on every 
flower, on every rock, in every star; think of God when 
you lie down to sleep, when you rise, when you work, 
when you rest, when you prosper, when you fail, when 
you suffer, when you enjoy yourself, when you die; think 
more of the Father's name; never forget that sweetest of 
all names, Jesus; always keep the door of grace open for 
that heavenly dove, the Holy Spirit. 

These four marks God has written not only on His 
jewels but on the book of His memory. And the Lord 
barkened and heard it, and a book of remembrance was 
written before Him for them. God in heaven is listening 
to this day's service. He hears your vow. He marks 
His jewels and Avrites the marks down on His memory. 

II. Not only do we find that God's jewels are mined 
and marked on earth, but He wants these jewels also on 
the Judgment day. And they shall be Mine, saith the 
Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up My jewels. . . 
Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous 

24 



370 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him 
that serveth Him not. 

1. Dear class, there is a day coming when you will 
not assemble in the presence of fifteen hundred people as 
you do this morning; there is a day coming when you will 
stand in the presence of those that you have laid away 
in sleep in yonder little grave ; there is a day coming when 
the sea shall give up its dead, when all the graves shall 
give up their dead, when those who are on earth, in the 
twinkling of an eye shall be changed; the dsij is coming 
when the Son of God, your Savior, who cut you out of 
the sin cursed world will come with His holy angels in 
all His glory and will call upon you to stand up before 
Him, and on that day you shall be His, He says, ^'When 
I make up My jewels." Oh, what a blessed thought on 
that day, God will arrange His jewels, and engrave them. 

2. He will engrave them. In this world we some- 
times do not know who are Christians and who are not. 
In the church it is said there are men who will beat their 
fellowmen as quick as any scoundrel on earth. Oh, what 
a pity I but I guess it is true, but what a great compliment 
it is to the church of God that a bad man is a hypocrite 
in a church. If the church were bad, a bad man could 
not be a hypocrite in the church. It is said that in tfte 
ehurch of God there are men who will not pay their debts. 
What a pity ! but if everybody in the church did not pay 
tlieir debts, nobody would say anything about it. They 
tell us there are men in the church of God that will curse 
and swear. Oh, what a pity! but they are not in God's 
invisible church; they are only in the congregation. They 
tell us there are people in the church living in fornication 
and adultery. God knows; I do not; but if they do, I 
want them to understand that there is a day coming when 
we Avill know just exactly who served God and avIio did 
Qot; there is a day coming when hypocrisy cannot stand 
a luoment; there is a day coming when the Lord God Al- 
miglit}^ shall sever the righteous from those that are lost 
and condemned in sin as the wind severs the chaff from 
tlie Avheat. Then shall ye return, and discern between 
tlie righteous and the wicked, between iiim tliat serveth 



CONFIRM ATIOX SEKMON. 371 

God and liim that seryeth Him not. Then we will know 
the difference. On that great day there will be no such 
a thing as a man being a Christian and his wife a child 
of the devil, or a wife a Christian and her husband a 
child of the devil walking arm in arm. God will say, 
Apart, forever. On that day those that have walked hand 
in hand, some professing to be Christians and others not, 
will hear a voice that will say, To My right, ye children 
of God, and to the left, children of the devil. Depart, 
ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil 
and his angels. These are My jewels. God will arrange 
that on that day, my dear friends. You go to your home 
and you Avill find a little spot somewhere, where you keep 
your little jewels. There is a time coming when the Lord 
God Almighty will take those that were baptized in the 
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost, and were faithful to Him until death, and 
arrange His jewels, and say. These are Mine; I have them 
arranged now forever. May God find every one of you 
arranged by His hand on that day. 

3. And not only does He arrange them, but He en- 
graves them. I called your attention before to the fact 
that you are already marked here on earth, but on that 
day you will receive another mark. A book of remem- 
brance was written before Him of them that feared the 
Lord and thought upon His name. There is a book of 
life where the jewels are recorded, and on every jewel 
you will find these words: My jewels! Oh, may God this 
day stamp that mark on every one of your souls — My 
jewels ! 

III. Xot only do we knoAV that on that great day 
they shall be marked as His jewels and His forever, but 
He intends to keep His jewels in heaven after the Judg- 
ment day, and on that day they will be His own jewels, 
and He will use them, also. 

1. And I will spare them as a man spare th his own 
son that serveth him. How would you spare your own 
son, father, that serves you? Suppose you had an only 
son, and he is good and faithful, works hard and does 
his duty in every way, when would you be ready to tell 



372 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

that son, Now get out of my home, I am done with you? 
Where is the home that wants to get rid of a faithful 
boy that is true to father and true to mother, and not a 
lazy hair on his head? Now then, says our God, as to 
you. His jewels, I will spare you as a man spareth his 
own son that serveth him, and that is never. I tell you, 
my dear friends, you are God's jewels, and when you 
come before Him on that last great day, He will look 
upon each one of you as if you were the only jewel He 
had. He does not bunch the whole world together and 
say these millions of people are My jewels, but He takes 
your daughter. He takes your son. He takes your father, 
He takes your mother, and places you in the palm of 
His hand, and among all the people in all the world He 
says, You are My jewel, and as a father spareth his son 
(not sons) an only child, so will I spare you; you are 
Mine only. Oh, it means something, dear class, to be 
created in the image of God; it means something to have 
a soul that came out of the mouth of God; it means 
something to know your value. If I could onl}^ impress 
two thoughts upon you to-day, I know that you would 
be safe for life, on the Judgment day, and forever. The 
one is your great value; and the other is the eye of God 
in mercy open over you every moment. 

2. When you have entered into the presence of your 
God as I hope you will forever. He not only will have you 
there as His own jewels, but He will have you there as 
useful jewels. As a man spareth his own son that serveth 
him. There are some sons that would be no loss to their 
families if they did leave them. I have in mind some 
men that I see in Mansfield; they wear good clothing 
all the time. Go up and down street when you please 
and you will see some of them standing on the corner, 
well dressed; they never do anything; we never see them 
working; they surely eat, for they are looking hearty. 
If the earth could just drop through a hole all of that 
class of people, there would be no loss to the world; but 
a son that serveth some one, a son that serveth a master, 
that works for the welfare of man and for the glory of 
God, he is a loss to any community when he leaves it. 



CONFIRMATION SERMON. 373 

Now then, says God, I have no use for jewels to make a 
show. Jesus did not ride into Jerusalem on that memor- 
able occasion with golden rings and many jewels about 
Him, but still He had His real jewels with Him, for when 
the children sang Hosanna to the Son of David! the 
proud Pharisees said, make the children keep quiet, but 
God said if they kept quiet the very stones would have 
to speak, and the little jewels sang to the glory of God, 
and He used them. Do not think for a single moment 
that when you come to heaven you will sit down there 
and forever and ever enjoy heaven doing nothing, seeing 
nothing and being nothing. God will use you, and He 
will use you to His glory, and He will have you serve 
Him forever and ever. It is a good thing to have jewelry 
when you can make use of it. Where is the man in this 
audience to-day that would Avant to give up his watch? 
That is jewelry, but we use it, and every bit of jewelry 
that you can use, Avear it, and everything that you can 
not use, throw it away, sell it, get rid of it; let us just 
wear Avhat Ave haA^e got and use Avhat we have got, for 
that is the way God will do with you as His jewel. He 
neA^er has a useless jewel around Him, and if we are all 
children of God here and serA^e Him here on earth, in 
this world, and are faithful until death, He will give us 
the crown of eternal life. 

Not very long ago the Prince of Wales was presented 
with a very valuable time piece, given by the queen to the 
coming king. Surely it Avas a beautiful gift, but the 
strange thing about it was that when the Prince of Wales 
wore the watch it stopped and would not run ; something 
Avas Avrong with it. They took it to the best jeweler in 
London and when he opened it he found there was just 
one little thing wrong with it, one little jewel was lost, 
and when that was replaced the watch gave the time, and 
it is to-day the valuable gift of the great queen to her 
son, the king ; and I was thinking just a moment ago how 
I would feel on that last great day when we stand be- 
fore our heavenly Father, if one of these jewels should 
be lost. Dear class, it is not for personal honor that I 
have labored with you as I have throughout the past 



374 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

year. I might sit at home with my family on an even- 
ing as other men do ; I have been tliere one evening since 
Christmas. Why would I spend my time with yon? Why 
would I run to your homes after you? Why would I 
pray for you and labor with you as I do? Why would 
I this very day spend a handsome sum of my own money 
that I might well use for others, just to give you a 
present? It isn't simply for the present's sake. There 
is something in this book that I shallhand you, a great 
message. It means something more than personal cost 
for me to instruct you and bring you into the church of 
God ; it means that you are to take these books home and 
remember in years to come, when this tongue is silent, 
when I can talk to you no more, Avhat your faithful pastor 
told you, and how he begged of you that you might be 
faithful and dear jewels until death, and receive the crown 
of eternal life. Can it be that any of you boys or any 
of you girls can go out into life now after having heard 
what you have, and lead a bad life and bring your parents 
to shame, disgrace your church, and try to comfort your- 
selves by saying, I did not know? Dear class, on that 
Judgment day I will testify against you if you do not 
serve God until death. You do know. You know God's 
truth, and you know how to live aright; you know how 
to live virtuous lives; you know how to be true to your 
fathers and mothers, true to your church and true to your 
government; you know your duty to God and man, and 
I beg of you to-day as in the presence of the great God 
on the Judgment day, do not let me find on that day 
one jewel lost among all these jewels. 

And may I say a word to you as parents and as 
friends of these jewels? Are you prating for their 
faithfulness to their God? Are you setting an example 
in your home to teach them to leave their religion in 
the church? I see the faces of some of you here to-day 
whom I have not seen before. Can it be that you expect 
these little children to lead you instead of your leading 
them? Can it be that you are setting an example that 
will possibly cause some of these jewels to be lost on that 
lagt great day? Does it mean nothing to you that God 



CONFIRMATION SERMON. 375 

says that on that last great day of eternal destruction 
some will gnash their teeth and weep? Can it be that 
possibly one of these jewels will be lost and there in 
hell gnash his teeth at you, his father, and say, you 
are the cause of my damnation, or that you, mother, have 
caused me to live as I did? I will never allow you to 
gnash your teeth at me on that day. Oh, I beg of you as 
a class, follow my Savior, and let us walk in His 
footprints and be faithful until death, and at last 
receive the crown of eternal life; and from this day until 
you die, unless sickness of your own, or the sickness of 
some one else keeps you at home, never allow the Sunday 
to pass without being in God's house and hearing His 
Word. Never allow the holy communion to be celebrated 
without going to the altar and receiving the body and 
the blood of your Master. Never allow the day to pass 
without praying to your God. He that believeth and is 
baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall 
be damned. Think over these things, and then, on that 
last great day when we all stand there before God, and 
I can be with you and you with me, all Christians and 
saints together, then we will hear God say. These are 
My jewels ! Thanks and praise be to Him who has mined 
us out of the sin cursed world, and with the means of 
grace has kept us, marked and i)olished, and here we 
stand, and we shall serve Him as an only son serves his 
loving Master. God bless you, my jewels! God bless you, 
God's jewels! Amen. 



H 



GOOD FRIDAY. 

The Serpent and the Savior. 

John 3:14-15. 

ND as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so 
must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth 
in Him should not perish, but have eternal hfe. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved in Christ: 

The first promise of a Savior was made to the old 
serpent, the devil. Gen. 3 :15. Side by side throughout 
the Bible and in universal history you will find the trail 
of the serpent and the path of the Savior. This morn- 
ing we stand on Calvary's hill and behold the Lamb of 
God that taketh away the sins of the world, bleeding and 
dying on the cross, and the old serpent is there, too. Let 
us not lose sight of 

THE SERPENT AND THE SAVIOR. 

May God open our eyes now to behold both of these in 
the days of Moses, and the days of Nicodemus. 

I. Let us first behold the serpent and the Savior 
in the days of Moses. There were three kinds of serpents 
in the camp of Moses. 

When we read the history of the fall of man and of 
the conduct of the children of Israel in the wilderness, 
it is not hard to discover the trail of the same serpent 
in the garden of Eden and on the way from Egypt to 
Canaan. That same old serpent that caused Cain to kill 

376 



GOOD FRIDAY. 377 

Abel also caused the children of Israel to rebel against 
Moses and God. 

As a result God sent fiery serpents to strike their 
deadly, poisonous fangs into the rebels until one by one 
they died in agony. Then they saw their mistake. Then 
they called for Moses to pray for them. Then they con- 
fessed their sins and begged for mercy. Why could they 
not see their wrongs when God was feeding them with 
bread from heaven? Why must God shake man over the 
abyss of hell before he will open his eyes to see? Why 
can we not see our duty when God blesses us? God saw 
their agony and heard their confession and prayers and 
then gave orders to Moses to make a serpent of brass 
and put it on a pole and lift it up in the wilderness and 
ask the bitten ones to look at it and be healed. 

This brazen serpent, says Jesus, Avas a type of Him- 
self. That brass could not help, but Jesus was there in 
the camp — ''Jesus Christ, yesterday, todaj', and forever." 
The Israelites rebelled against Moses and against God in 
the wilderness. In short, they rejected Jesus Christ Him- 
self at that time. Jesus taught them then and there that 
they must be saved b}^ death. Bitten by the serpents, 
they were filled with the poison of serpents and had to 
look at a dead serpent to get help. From a distance tne 
serpent of brass on the pole looked just like the serpents 
running along on the camp ground, but closer investiga- 
tion showed that it was a brazen serpent without life. 
Please remember right here that nothing could save the 
bitten people at this hour but a look at the serpent of 
death ! Just a look — nothing more and nothing else. 
If any one thought a look could do no good, and would 
not look, he died and there was no help for him. 

II. Now let us come over to the days of Mcodemus. 
In the days of this ruler the serpent and the Savior were 
in Jerusalem. The trail of the serpent and the promise 
of the Savior run side by side through the Old Testa- 
ment. At first Satan seems to be an ordinary serpent, 
but in the days of Job he is seen as Satan indeed. At 
first the promise of Jesus seems to point to an ordinary 
child, but in the davs of Job He is alreadv known as the 



378 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

Kedeemer. In the days of Mcodemus Satan was no 
longer hiding his serpent nature. Then he was possess- 
ing men as never before. During the ministry of Jesus 
Christ the very powers of hell were turned loose. Then 
he not only possessed ordinary men, women and chil- 
dren, but the religious leaders. When the Pharisees, 
Sadducees and scribes fight Jesus during His ministry, 
when the hard-hearted mob stands around Jesus and 
spits in His face, and buffets Him, and slaps Him and 
scourges Him, and crowns Him with the crown of thorns, 
and cry out Crucify Him! Crucify Him! I say when 
we see and hear all this, we almost see the fiery serpents 
shoot out their tongues! As the serpent and the ser- 
pents were in the wilderness, so they were in Jerusalem 
that time when Jesus was teaching Nicodemus the neces- 
sity of the new birth. Nicodemus could not understand 
this great mystery. It was not necessary for him to un- 
derstand it. Israel did not understand either how look- 
ing at a serpent of brass upon a pole could help when 
they were dying of serpent bites, but it did help, and ^'so 
must the Son of man be lifted up that whosoever be- 
lieveth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." 
Jesus, too, looked much like another man, but He was 
no sinner. He was the God-man — God — ^ able to pay 
the debt of a lost world — sinless man — willing to die 
and be our Substitute. He was lifted up alive, but 
taken down dead, and Nicodemus helped. As the dead 
serpent of brass helped in the wilderness as a type of 
Christ, so we must look up at the dead Lamb of God to 
be saved. ^'Look unto Me, all the ends of the earth, and 
be ye saved, for I am God and there is none else.'' Not 
by our own merits, not by our own righteousness, not 
by anything that we can do are we saved, but alone by 
the look of faith at Christ on the cross. "And I, if I 
be lifted up, shall draw all men unto Me." "In my 
hands no price I bring; simply to Thy cross I cling." 
Like Bunyan's Pilgrim, look at the cross till the bundle 
of your sins falls off and rolls down into a deep grave — 
where Jesus slept, and rose again. Amen! 

Note : Read the author's Wounded Word. 



EASTER SUNDAY. 

The Lump Leavened. 

I Cor. 5:6-8. 

^f ^ OUR glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven 
^y leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, 
^^ that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even 
Christ, our passover, is sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the 
feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wicked- 
ness ; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloiied in Christ : 

Hail to the risen King — Jesus Christ! In Him 
there is joy! Joy in the heart of every true Christian! 
I cannot imagine how • any man who is a child of God 
can be sad and sorrowful on Easter morning. When 
we know that Christ rose from the dead and conquered 
death and made heaven sure for all believers in Him, 
why should we not rejoice? You may be surprised that 
the Church of God has selected a text like this for Eas- 
ter morning. The very first sentence seems to be ad- 
dressed to the people to make them sad instead of happy. 
"Your glorying is not good.'' Remember the Apostle Paul 
wrote this epistle to the church in which there was one 
man leading a very ungodly life, and the people, instead 
of putting him out, or taking him into discipline, simply 
gloried in his sin. Let us not forget that Easter morn- 
ing is not only a joy to the child of God, but is equally a 
message that ought to make a sinner trouble. If Jesus 
Christ had been crucified and never had risen from the 
dead, then might children of the devil be happy this 

379 



380 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

morning. But mark you, the very fact that Jesus Christ 
did conquer death, the very fact that He assured us by 
this resurrection that you and I shall rise again, and 
that every knee on earth shall come and bow before 
Him, ought to make a man trouble if he is not a Chris- 
tian. Easter morning, therefore, is a message of joy 
only to the Christian, and a message of sadness and sor- 
row to every man who is not prepared to meet his God. 
Oh, what a morning that will be Avhen you rise from the 
dead, because Jesus Christ rose from the dead, if you 
died unprepared to meet your God! "Know ye not that 
a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?" says the apos- 
tle. I call your attention this morning to 

THE LUMP LEAVENED. 

May the Holy Spirit show you this morning how the 
whole lump of the world has been leavened. 

I. By a little sin; 
II. By a little Son. 

I. By a little sin. It was a little sin, in the esti- 
mation of some people, that Eve committed in the gar- 
den of Eden. She just did one thing that God said she 
should not do. In comparison with our sins. Eve com- 
mitted a very little sin, but that little sin leavened her 
family; that little sin brought Adam to sin; that little 
sin brought Cain and Abel to sin; that little sin lifted 
up the club of Cain and killed Abel; that little sin, in 
other words, leavened the whole lump of her family, and 
not only of her family, but of every family. Am I wrong 
when I say there is no one in this house today who is 
not suffering on account of some special sin found some- 
where back in his own family? When we stop to think 
that God said, I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, 
visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children 
unto the third and fourth generations of them that hate 
Me, my friends, it ought to make us tremble to look 
into the future; it ought to make us ask ourselves the 
question, Is our conduct such as to leaven our families 



EASTER SUNDAY. 381 

with sin or with righteousness? Yes, you are suffering 
this very morning on account of your own family leav- 
ened Avith some kind of a sin. 

It is not only true that a little sin leavens the whole 
lump of the family, but also of the church. The Cor- 
inthian church consisted of intelligent people. There 
were probably no people on God's earth in that day that 
were more acute in mind, more able quickly to grasp a 
thought, than the people of Corinth, but the Apostle 
Paul had not left that church very long until a certain 
man married his OAvn step-mother and was guilty of 
adulter}^, and the congregation having lived so long in 
heathendom and in this ver^^ sin, thought. Oh, well, it is 
a little weakness, let it pass; but the apostle wrote them 
a letter and said, Watch out : a little leaven leaveneth 
the whole lump. One bad man in the church, tolerated 
there, without repentance, will affect every member of 
that church. Can jou have a sore finger on your hand, 
and be well? Can a congregation have a member in the 
church living an ungodly life, knowing it, and prosper? 
A little leaven will leaven the whole lump, and conse- 
quently it becomes our duty as a church to look around 
very carefully, and if we positively know that there is 
one member who is living an ungodly life, let his sin be 
what it Avill, let us not go around and throw some devil- 
ish suspicion Avhere it should not be thrown, let us not 
sit around and talk when Ave have no right to talk, but 
if we know anything, then let us go, as God says, to 
that person, and tell him, eye to eye, this is your sin, 
and you must repent of it and acknowledge it before 
God and ask His forgiA^eness, and stop, or I will be 
compelled by God's own order, to report 3^ou to another 
person, and that other person and I Avill come to you 
according to Matt. 18, and there tell you of it face to 
face, and if you will not listen to us, then tell it to the 
church, and if you will not listen to the church, then 
you must be put out, for a little leaven leaveneth the 
AA^hole lump. 

Not only does this little sin leaven the whole lump 
of the church, but it will leaven the whole community. 



882 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

If I dared to mention names I could show jou what 
evil one man can do in the world; I could point you to 
a man who went into a little Tillage that was known 
for its good Christian people; I could show you how 
that one man's sin nearly drove to ruin another person 
in that village; I could show you how that one person 
accomplished Avhat he wanted, and how these two people 
ruined two more, and how those four ruined eight more, 
and that whole neighborhood in twenty -five years has 
become tainted by the poison of that ungodly wasp called 
man. I could show you how the offspring of that man 
has come to Mansfield, and I could shoAv you how that 
man in Mansfield has done more harm than any five 
preachers can do good. A whole community leavened 
by the little sin of one man. 

Not only do we find a whole community is some- 
times leavened by a little sin, but nations are leavened. 
It does not take a very intelligent reader to know what 
Wc! mean when we speak of the sin of the Orient. It 
does not take a very intelligent reader in history to 
know what we mean when we speak of the sin of Europe, 
or of the special sin of Germany, of France, of Paris, of 
London, the special sin of the British, or of the Ameri- 
cans. The whole nation leavened. 

Not only is it true that a little sin has leavened a 
nation, but it is true that it has leavened the whole 
world. Where is the man todaj^ on earth who is not 
tainted Avith the sin of Eve in the garden of Eden? Where 
is the human being breathing today among all the mul- 
titudes, all colors and races, who is not suffering on 
account of the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah? Where is 
the person on God's earth todsij who has not suffered 
bodily and mentally on account of the first sin that 
entered the world? Every graveyard, every battlefied, 
every moan and groan that is heard this morning in all 
the hospitals of the world, can be traced back to a little 
sin in the garden of Eden, from the little tongue of that 
old serpent, the devil, at one time an angel from heaven. 

II. On this Easter morning let us not forget how 
a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump of sin. "There- 



EASTER SUNDAY. 383 

fore let us keep tlie feast, not with old leaven, neither 
with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the 
unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." And how shall 
we have this new leaven of sincerity and truth, except 
in Him who here is called our Passover? "Purge out, 
therefore, the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, 
as je are unleavened. For even Christ, our Passover, 
is sacrificed for us.'' In the German translation of the 
Bible, Doctor Luther has translated this word feast 
'^Ostern" or Easter. In other words, the passover of old 
is looked upon as only a type of Jesus Christ who went 
down to the grave and rose again, having died on Cal- 
vary as our great Easter Lamb, or our great Passover. 

Now, just as the little sin leavened the whole lump, 
so the little Son of God leavened the whole lump of 
righteousness, and purity, and salvation. Let us see how 
this was done in the ante-diluvian age. When Adam 
and Eve had sinned and God appeared on the scene. He 
stood before Satan and said, I will put enmity between 
thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed, 
and it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise His 
heel. NoAv that little seed of the woman was the promise 
of the little Son that was to leaven the whole lump of 
the world, and that promise was none other than the 
promise of Jesus Christ, born of the virgin Mary, to 
crush the head of the serpent that was to crucify His 
heel, crucify and pierce His hands and His feet. That 
little leaven went on working in the ante-diluvian aga 
Some of the people were faithful. Noah and his family 
trusted in that seed; but then came the great flood; but 
even the flood could not wash that seed out of existence; 
the family was saved. 

Then came the prophetic age and throughout that 
prophetic age you find the little leaven leavening the whole 
lump. In time Abraham was chosen as the father of 
nations. There was a promise made to him that in his 
seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed. In 
other words, God showed Abraham how^ through Israel 
the time should come that this little Son, promised in 
the garden of Eden, should so leaven the world that 



384 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

everywhere they should sing songs of praise to the 
Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Time passed on and Isaiah 
saw the leaven working, and he put a stamp on it. His 
name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty 
God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. They 
saw the leaven working and the people of Israel cried 
out. Watchman, what of the night? How long, how 
long, until the King of Glory shall come? And Daniel 
saw the leaven working, and he looked out beyond even 
the present time and saw how the whole world should 
be blessed through Him who shall be born in seventy-two 
prophetic weeks. 

Time passed on and the very star of the east came 
and said, Look down into the crib of Bethlehem and 
there you will find the little Son. He was born. At the 
age of twelve He astonished the Doctors of Divinity. At 
the age of thirty He became that wonderful minister. The 
old serpent of hell now began to crawl over the earth and 
stretch herself out as she never did before, that old ser- 
pent now began to possess men, women and children, and 
the Son of God preached as He never preached before, 
and the louder He preached the more Satan roared, like 
a roaring lion, until the time came that this Seed was 
lifted up on the cross of Calvary. The great Passover 
was now hanging on Calvary's hill. The serpent struck 
the sting of death. Then He was carried to His grave 
and lying there sleeping in the grave from Friday after- 
noon over the Sabbath until Sunday morning. He arose 
from the dead. Then it was that the little Son stood 
before the gates of hell as the mighty Son of God, as 
the mighty Conqueror, the mighty Victor, and sang, O 
death, where is thy sting? — sang, in the language of 
Goethe, "Speak, hell, speak, where is thy victory? Be- 
hold, Satan, behold thy kingdom crushed!" And then 
the angels of God flew down from the realm of heaven 
and rolled the stone from the grave of the Son. Victory 
had come! The leaven was leavening the whole lump. 
Christ had risen from the dead ! A new power was com- 
ing. Pentecost was coming. The Holy Spirit was com- 
ing. The fiery tongues from heaven were to kindle a 



EASTER SUNDAY. 385 

new flame on earth, and then the earth was beginning 
to feel the power of the leaven of the little Son. 

The Dark Ages came. The Middle Ages came. It 
looked for a while as if the seed was all buried ; it looked 
as if the wonderful Christ that rose from the dead was 
buried under the lava of a great eruption by the sin of 
the people. But, my dear friends, all the fires of perse- 
cution, all the darkness of the Middle Ages, could not 
keep the leaven from working. Your mothers know very 
well that that you set your yeast at night, and while 
you are sleeping it works, and in the morning it is ready ; 
and just so the Middle Ages was the dark night of his- 
tory, when the great leaven of the Son of God was work- 
ing on down in caves, down in dark places the world 
did not see. Mighty men of God held to the sacred truth 
and wrote with their pens dipped in the blood of the 
Lamb the mighty truths that shook the world in the 
great Reformation. 

We have not only this leaven working in the Middle 
Ages, but we have it working in the missionary age. When 
Doctor Luther arose on that morning of 1517 and nailed 
his ninety-five theses on the door of the church at Wit- 
tenberg, he sounded the trumpet that not only shook the 
seven hills of Eome, but the trumpet that shook all Eu- 
rope, and all nations are today enjoying a blessing on 
account of what took place in the Reformation. I would 
have you to understand that the last century was not the 
only missionary century in history. We sometimes talk 
about the last century as if the Church of God had done 
more in the last century than she ever did before. I 
want to say to this intelligent audience this morning 
that if the foundation had not been laid on Calvary's 
hill, and by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, if that had 
not been done which was done in the dark night of the 
Middle Ages, there would not have been a Reformation, 
and if there had not been the Reformation of the six- 
teenth century, Avhen theologians did not stand around 
with glasses on and say we think this, or that, when it 
was not popular to find fault with God's Word, but in 

25 



386 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

those days when by the Holy Spirit they got down ta 
the message of God's Word and said, what did God 
teach, and reduce it to a science; they laid the founda- 
tions strong in that century that made the last century 
possible and will bring about a greater reformation in 
the future than there ever Avas in the past, all because 
the leaven of the Middle Ages and of the Keformation is 
now Avorking — working its Avay into every city, work- 
ing its way into the Church; and the time is coming — 
mark what I tell you — that the ministers of the Gospel 
who find fault Avith the old Bible dare not preach in the 
Church of God any more. The time is coming when the 
leaven of the Eesurrection and of the Eeformation, the 
mighty leaA en that Ave feel today in our hearts and souls, 
will compel every stubborn man to do one of two things, 
either intelligently to go to hell, or to turn back to the 
true and liAang God. Such, my friends, is the little 
leaven of the little Son of God in the great lump of the 
Avorld today. 

"Your glorying is not good. KnoAV ye not that a 
little leaA^en leaveneth the Avhole lump? Purge out, there- 
fore, the old leaA^en, that ye may be a new lump as ye 
are unleaA ened. For even Christ, our Passover, is sacri- 
ficed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with 
old leaAcn, neither Avith the leaven of malice and wicked- 
ness, but with the nuleaA^ened bread of sincerity and 
truth.'' 

Purge out, thei-ef ore, the old leaven. That is the 
way to keep the feast. That is the Avay to celebrate 
Easter. Let me urge upon the .First Lutheran church 
this morning to carry out church discipline to the letter. 
It seems to me the time has passed that we can bear 
rottenness in our midst; the time has come that the old 
leaven must be purged out. Do not get scared because 
Ave lose a family now and then. We do not want to 
lose a single member, but thanks be to God, when we da 
lose those that do not want the truth. Thanks be to 
God when we do lose those that cannot bear the truth. 
I, for my part, am ahvays Avilling to clean house, not 
only at liome but in the church. Let us clean house this 



EASTER SUNDAY. 387 

spring. Let us clean house this Easter morning. Let 
us make up our minds that it is far better to have that 
man out of the Church of Corinth if he does not live 
rightly than to have him in there, and make up our minds 
so to iDreach, so to testify, and so to live that a man 
that sins in the First Lutheran church, and I hope every 
other church, is compelled to do one of two things, 
either to live nearer to God every day or to stop pla3dng 
hypocrite. 

This leads me to saj^ furthermore, in conclusion, 
that tlie way for us to celebrate Easter is not only to 
purge out the old leaven, but to leaven our own families 
with Christians, and the whole Church of God. As I 
have already stated, it seems to me the time has come 
when we must do greater things. I find too many families 
connected with this church in which there is a father, or 
possibly a mother, or possibly a son or daughter, who 
are not yet Christians. How long are you going to live 
that way? How long shall this thing go on that way? 
Pray tell me, isn't it time that every family has enough 
Christianity in it to leaven the whole lump? Isn't it 
time that the Christians in every family have power 
enough from on high to bring all of them into the house 
of God and into the kingdom. I have a special request 
to make of you this morning : If you have got a member 
of your family that is not a Christian, come and ^et this 
card, or one like it. I am 2:oing to read it to you : 



WILL ONE OF YOUR FAMILY BE LOST ON THE DAY OF 

PENTECOST? 

Not if that one will spend seven Thursday evenings between Easter 
and Pentecost, from April 27th to June 8th. from 7:30 to 8:30 P. M. 
in the First Lutheran Church and hear seven talks on 

THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 

Jesus says, "Go work today in My vineyard !" Go right now and 
get all the adults of your family and among your friends who are not 
professed Christians to signify their intention to attend these seven 
meetings by signing this card. Let us have a real Pentecost June 11th. 

WORK AND PRAY. 



388 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

Now, mj dear friends, if Peter and John, and the 
Marys could get up on the first Easter morning at sun- 
rise and run to the grave, if those two young men could 
go from Jerusalem to Emmaus, seven and a half miles 
away, and in a short time be back in that upper room 
where Christ was on that first Easter evening, can you 
not this afternoon go a mile, or two miles, or three miles, 
can you not go into your own family and say, my son, 
my daughter, you are now past the age of twelve or 
fifteen and I want you to be a Christian; we want to 
live together here and in heaven; put your name down 
here and simply promise that you will sit down seven 
evenings and listen to the AYay Made Plain, and if after 
you have heard those seven addresses and you know the 
way to heaven, if you are still bound to go to hell, I will 
still beg of you, Oh, don't go, but if you do go, I want 
you to go knowing that your father and mother prayed 
that you might be saved; that we did our duty? I appeal 
this morning for volunteers. I want 200 men and women 
to start out this afternoon, and stop putting off from 
month to month what you ought to do today. This 
command is not the command of your pastor, it is God 
Himself who says "Go" — do not sit down ; "work" — do 
not be lazy; "today" — not tomorrow; "in My vineyard" 
— it is God's vineyard in which we are working. We 
jnight just as well on the day of Pentecost have five hun- 
dred men brought into the kingdom of God as to have 
them sitting around w^here they are sitting this morning, 
lost and damned, and some do not know it. May God 
bless these words is my earnest prayer. Amen. 

PRAYER. 

O God, oiir heavenly Father, we thank Thee for this morning 
commemorative of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, 
the Savior of the world, our S'avior, my Savior. O Lord, I pray Thee 
this morning as Thy servant that Thou wilt impress the message of the 
morning on the heart of every hearer. If there are any in this 
house this morning who have been living a life of sin, O God, bring 
them back to Thee. Help them to repent. Help them to come to Him 
who alone can help, and that the old leaven may be purged out of the 
lump. We pray Thee furthermore that Thou wilt pour into our hearts 



EASTER SUNDAY. 389 

the spirit of love, the missionary spirit, that reaches out to bring many 
into the kingdom of heaven, that lump, heavenly Father, that is growing 
and being leavened by the little Son of Man, the great Son of God who 
taught us to pray : 

Our Father who art in heaven ; Hallowed be Thy name ; Thy 
kingdom come ; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven ; Give 
us this day our daily bread ; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us ; And lead us not into temptation ; 
But deliver us from evil; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



FIRST SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. 

What Would John Join? 

I John 5:4-12. 

fOR whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world : and this is 
the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is 
he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus 
is the Son of God? This is He that came by water and blood, even 
Jesus Christ ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is 
the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there 
are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word and the 
Holy Ghost : and these three are one. And there are three that bear 
witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: 'and these 
three agree . in one. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of 
God is greater : for this is the witness of God which He h'ath testified 
of His Son. ' He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in 
himself: he that believeth not God hath made Him a liar; because he 
believeth not the record that God gave of His Son. And this is the 
record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His 
Son. He that hath the Son hath life ; and he that hath not the Son 
of God h'ath not life. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Dear Christian Friends: 

John Avas the only one of the twelve disciples that 
died a natural death. He reached the age of about one 
hundred years, and the thought occurred to me as I read 
this text, what would John do if he Avere on earth to-day? 
Where Avould he actually be? What Avould he join? The 
Roman Catholic Church members tell us that Peter was 
a Catholic. Hoav about John? Would he be in the Lu- 
theran Church? Would he be in the Presbyterian Church? 
Would he be in the Jewish Church? Would he be in the 
Sah^ation Army? Would he be a Christian Scientist? 

390 



FIRST SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. 391 

Would he join the Masons? Where would John be? I 
am glad for one thing that we have reached a period at 
least in this church, and I think in history, Avhen things 
that used to be considered questions not debatable, are 
now debatable. There was a time, not a hundred years 
ago, that if a man came to a city and said anything about 
Masonry, for instance, they would get some paint and 
paint him, and they Avould not let those men get off of 
the train any more; they would send them home as fast 
as they came. That day has passed. There was a time 
when, if you would say anything about the Lutheran 
Church the Lutherans were angry, or if you would say 
anything against the Catholic Church, the Catholics were 
angry. We are reaching a time in history when intelli- 
gent men are discovering that anything that is not worth 
discussing is not worth anything, and that things that 
are not worth testing are not worth anything. I may pay 
my respects this evening to the Lutheran Church, I may 
pay it to the Protestant Churches, I may pay it to the 
Jewish Church, may be to the Christian Scientists, may 
be to the Salvation Army, may be to the different things 
that come into my mind as I pass along. I simply wish 
to say tonight that this text is so full of good things that 
I wish I had ten evenings instead of one to expound it. 
It is so full of the real essence of true Christianity that 
I am led to ask the question 

WHAT WOULD JOHN JOIN? 

I. I shall pay my respects a few moments to the 
Eoman Catholic Church this evening, and the abuses 
there. The Roman Catholic Church has many things that 
are worthy of imitation. Her hospitals are so grand and 
so good that I can never think of the Roman Catholic 
Church Avithout praising her for taking care of her sick. 
The last evening I spent at Omaha I Avas called out at 
twelA^e o'clock at night to Adsit a sick one in a Roman 
Catholic hospital, and there I saAv those good, angelic 
nuns sitting there in that large liospital reading their 
words of prayer and giA^ng their lives for the good of hu- 



392 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

inanity, and a man who just publicly and in a wholesale 
way denounces Catholicism is an ignoramus. When you 
see how the Roman Catholic church reaches down into 
its pocket and not only supports the priest but several 
good school teachers to educate their children the first 
twelve years, I say shame on the Protestant church that 
she doesn't take the same care of her children. But when 
I ask myself the question, Would John join the Roman 
Catholic Church, I find a little difficulty. For instance, 
I do not believe that you could ever get him to pray to 
the virgin Mary. I open my Roman Catholic catechism 
and I find these words : 

^'I confess to Almighty God, to blessed Mary, ever 
Virgin, to blessed Michael the Archangel, to blessed John 
the Baptist, to the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, and to 
all the Saints, that I have sinned exceedingly in thought, 
word and deed, through my fault, through my fault, 
through my most grevious fault. Therefore I beseech 
blessed Mary, ever Virgin, blessed Michael the Archangel, 
blessed John the Baptist, the holy Apostles Peter and 
Paul, and all the Saints, to pray to the Lord our Cod 
for me.'' 

John would never utter those words. John had Mary 
in his own home for fifteen years. John heard Jesus 
Christ from the cross call Mary a woman. "Woman, be- 
hold thy son!" and "John, behold thy mother!" Now, if 
John heard Jesus call His own mother "Woman" instead 
of Mary, not only when He was hanging on the cross, 
but when He turned the water into wine, do you suppose 
that John would ever have prayed to the virgin Mary? 
Do you suppose he would call upon Paul to pray for him 
when Paul is dead and buried? Do you suppose he would 
call upon any saint when God said. Thou shalt worship 
the Lord Thy God and Him only shalt thou serve? No. 
John would find a little difficulty along that line. 

Again, John would insist most emphatically upon 
an open Bible for the laymen. He says here, And there 
are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit and the 
water and the blood, and these three agree in one. Any 
one who reads tJie Bible carefullv will understand that 



FIRST SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. 393 

John speaks in that verse of the Bible and Holy Baptism, 
and the Lord's Supper, as being the means of grace. He 
says that this record in earth is intended for the people. 
Therefore, if John were to find that any church on earth 
would not say to the masses, here is the Bible, read it, 
he would say. That is not what I want ; I want the Word 
of God to have free course; I want the Word of God to 
read; I want the people to know the message of the true 
and living God. 

Again, I find that John would not agree with the way 
the communion is distributed in the Roman Catholic 
Church, for there you all know that the priest gives only 
the bread — or, as they believe, the body — to the com- 
municant, while the priest only takes the wine, or the 
blood. Now then, says John, there are three that bear 
witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water and the blood, 
and these three agree in one. If we receive the witness 
of men, the witness of God is greater. John was sitting 
at the table when the Lord's Supper was instituted, and 
he heard Jesus say. Take, eat, this is My body; and then 
he heard Jesus say. Take, drink ye all of it, this is My 
blood which was shed for you and for many for the re- 
mission of sin; and John, having heard and seen that 
Jesus Christ distributed both elements among the dis- 
ciples, would never be where he could not have the cup 
as well as the rest. So you see he would have trouble 
to be a Roman Catholic. 

11. Would John belong to the Jewish Church? One 
thing is sure, he at one time did. There was a time when 
John belonged to the old Church of Israel; there was a 
time when he, like all others, was looking for the coming 
Savior; and then the Savior did come, and the Savior 
one day saw John and others and called him, and John 
followed Christ and stayed with Him for three long years, 
went with Him to His trial, stood by Him at the cross 
and took care of His mother for fifteen years, and learned 
many things in those fifteen years that doubtless the other 
disciples never learned about the private life of Jesus 
Christ in the first thirty years of His life. 

John never left the Jewish Church but the Jewish 



394 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

Church left John. The Jewish Church was looking for 
Christ. Christ came. John remained true to the Jewish 
Church and accepted Christ, and many of the Jews left 
Israel, and left John, and left the Savior. Now, if you 
were to ask me to-day, would John follow the Jews that 
rejected Christ, I would positively say no. If you were 
to ask me, did he leave Israel, I would say no. John re- 
mained faithful to Israel, faithful to Jesus Christ, and 
would not to-day be found in any Jewish temple, and I 
will tell you why. He says here. Who is he that over- 
cometh the world but he that believeth that Jesus is the 
Son of God? Again, And this is the record, that God 
hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 
He that hath the Son hatli life, and he that hath not 
the Son of God hath not life. We all know the Jewish 
Church today has not got Christ, consequently it hasn't 
got the Savior, the life, and if it hasn't got the life, how 
could you expect John to join the Jewish Church. No, 
the Jews would have to come and join with Christ in 
order to be with John. So you see very plainly that he 
would not join the Jewish Church. 

III. Would John be willing to join any Protestant 
Church? In others words, would it make no difference 
to John which church he would join? Surely it would. 
There are Protestant churches that deny the Trinity. How 
could John join the Unitarian church, when he says here, 
There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, 
the Word and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. 
Surely John believed in the Trinity of one God in three 
persons; consequently, if any Protestant church would 
deny the Trinity, John Avould say, I cannot go with you. 
If any Protestant church would deny that man might 
be lost, he would never join that church. John could 
never have joined the Universal ist churchy for he says here, 
He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the 
Son of God hath not life. Now we know that thousands 
of people even in this Christian land today have not got 
Christ; they don't want Him; and at the same time the 
Universalist church will say that that man in some way or 
other, they never tell us just exactly how it is going to 



FIRST SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. 395 

be done, but that he Avill get to heaven some way. I say 
it cannot be, for he hasn't got life. If we receive the 
witness of men, the witness of God is greater, for this 
is the witness of God which He hath testified of His Son, 
he that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in 
himself; he that believeth not God hath made Him a liar, 
because he believeth not the record that God gave of His 
Son. The man, therefore, that denies there is a heaven 
and a hell, or that there is no hell, if he acknowledges a 
heaven, has made God a liar. Are we going to believe 
what Doctor So-and-so says, or are we going to believe 
what the Son of God says? Are we going to believe what 
some man has tried to think out with his little brain, 
that only weighs a few ounces, or are we going to believe 
Him Avhb has a mind larger than the Universalist Church? 
Again, John would not join any Protestant church 
that would not make the right use of the means of grace. 
There are some churches that do not seem to know what 
the Lord's Supper is ; there are some churches that do not 
seem to know how the Holy Spirit comes to man; there 
are some churches that do not seem to know that the Holy 
Spirit has got channels through which He comes to man, 
just as the water has a channel to reach the sea, just as 
the stream comes down from the mountain. That 
channel is pictured most beautifully by John. There 
are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the 
water, and the blood, and these three agree in one. In 
other words here we have got the voice of the Holy Spirit. 
Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy 
Ghost. When I write you a letter and you read that 
letter, I come to you through that letter. Here is the 
letter of the Holy Spirit. When you read that Word 
the Holy Spirit comes to you. He not only comes to you 
through the Word itself, but He comes to you through His 
Word connected with water in holy baptism, as He came 
to these two little children tonight. Xot only through 
His Word connected with water, but comes to man through 
His Word connected with bread and wine in the Lord's 
Supper when He says. Take, eat, tin's is My body, and, 
take, drink, this is My blood. Now then, says John, these 



396 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

are the means of grace; that is the way the Holy Spirit 
comes to man. And there are three that bear witness in 
earth, the Spirit, the water, and the blood, and these three 
agree in one — one what? One Word ! Then there are Pro- 
testant churches that do not seem to think it is necessary 
to be baptized ; who do not ask the question. Are the chil- 
dren baptized? who change the words of the Lord's Sup- 
per, how could John join that church? And it is a well 
known fact that some Protestant churches find no fault 
whatever even with a minister if he begins to pick out 
one chapter or verse after another and says that does not 
belong to the Bible; there are even people who tell us 
that this very chapter I am reading now is an interpola- 
tion, that it slipped in some way and was afterwards 
copied, that it does not belong to the original manuscript. 
I would say on that kind of criticism of the Bible, if I 
hand you a paper to copy, and after the copy is given up 
I find on one paper something that is not on the othei", 
it surely is not a copy. A man cannot copy something 
that was not in the original, but if I should find some- 
thing in the original that is not in the copy, I should 
simply draw the conclusion that you skipped a sentence. 
The Word of God has been copied for centuries. Manu- 
scripts have been found all over the ancient world. Once 
in a while some man picks up some manuscript that was 
found and does not find a verse that belongs in the fifth 
chapter of John, and so he draws the conclusion that if 
it is found in the Bible it is an interpolation, or, in other 
words, the manuscript that has the verse is not as good 
as the one that has not got it. Common sense would teach 
a man that the manuscript that has something the other 
manuscript has not, is the better of the two ; consequenth^, 
if any manuscript in the world has this fifth chapter of 
John, I should say it is the best manuscript; and, after 
all, it is a very foolish man who will accept part of the 
Bible as God's Word and refuse another part; a man 
would be a fool to say that God made one-half of the sun 
but not the other; or to say that God made one-half of 
the moon but not the other; when God makes a moon He 
makes a moon; when He makes a sun He makes a sun; 



FIRST SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. 397 

when He makes a world He makes a world ; and when He 
took it into His mind to give the AVord to the world He 
gave it, and no man nor devil can ever rob me of my faith 
in the Inspired Word of God, nor could he rob John, and 
if John found a church where any minister of the Gospel 
would begin to pick at this verse or that verse, at this 
chaptel' or tliat chapter, John would walk out and say: 
This is no place for me. 

IV. How about the Salvation Army? We have a 
great many people in the present da}^ that put the Salva- 
tion Army on a parallel with the church. Surely I would 
be the last man on earth to say anything harmful of what 
they do ; the Salvation Army has been doing a work that 
the Church of God should have been doing these many, 
many years, and I respect no people more than I do that 
Salvation Army man or woman who goes down into the 
slums and there helps some poor old drunken sot to stand 
up, or who helps to clothe the poor and does the good 
work that the Church of God ought to do; but there is 
one thing we must be very careful about and that is, not 
to call the Salvation Army a Church, for if we do, then, 
m}^ friends, I would be the last man on earth to have any- 
thing to do with it, and I will tell you why. The Salva- 
tion Army does not baptize any one; the Salvation Army 
does not give the Lord's Supper ; the Salvation Army does 
not give two parts of what John wrote in this verse. And 
there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, 
and the Avater, and the blood, and these three agree in 
one. The Salvation Army says, Ave will let the baptism 
to one side, and Ave will let the Lord's Supper to one 
side, and we Avill just take the Word of God and preach 
it. That sounds very logical and very nice, but really, 
my friends, could you preach the Word of God and leave 
out baptism, or leave out the Lord's Supper? There is 
the great Aveakness of the Salvation Army. What I say 
to you I have said to their captain and to them time and 
again as officers, you must do one of two things, you 
must either urge your members to go into the church and 
be baptized and get the Lord's Supper, or you must have 
baptism and the Lord's Supper, and not make the people 



398 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

believe yon are preaching' God's Word when you are not 
preaching it all. That must be plain to every one. John, 
who wrote these words, And there are three that bear 
Avitness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood, 
and these three agree in one, would never be satisfied in 
an organization that does not make use of the full means 
of grace. 

V. How about the Christian Scientists? The Chris- 
tian Scientist is not half as bad as some people make him. 
The Christian Scientist has one thing I wish every church 
in the world had; the Christian Scientist does not go 
from house to house and say, How is your health to-day, 
or how are you feeling this morning? We have been 
asking that question around in our homes and as a rule 
in society, so long that every person is feeling around to 
find if there isn't something wrong somewhere, and we 
are talking about sickness until we actually think we 
are sick. If nine-tenths of the people that arise in the 
morning and have a little headache and don't feel well 
would go to work and sweat, they would feel all right. 
And if we had just enough of the Christian Science in 
us to stop talking about sickness all the time and think- 
ing about sickness, and just get out and Avork and try 
to help others, we Avould forget a good deal about our 
sickness. That is the secret of Christian Science and that 
is why some people are so taken up with it. They have 
been surrounded with an atmosphere of grumbling and 
murmuring so long that Avhen they get into a home where 
they are made to feel that Ave are all happy and all right,, 
they say, that is the kind of an organization I want to 
belong to. But after all, there is something about Chris- 
tian Science that would not suit John. They do not bap- 
tize any one; they do not have the Lord's Supper; tney 
are not making use of the means of grace; they are not 
making use of the command. Go ye into all the world 
and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the 
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost, leaving out the essentials; they have not got the 
promise that you and I have got, that he that believeth 
and is baptized shall be saved. John Avouldn't feel at 



FIRST SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. 399 

liome in that kind of an organization, for on page 473 of 
Science and Health they actually deny that Jesns is God. 

YI. What would JoLn join? Would he join the se- 
cret orders? There are some yery good things about secret 
orders. I would be a fool if I thought eyery man that 
belonged to secret orders were not a good man. There 
are so many preachers in secret orders these days that I 
would haye to denounce the ministry if I did not haye 
something good to say of good men; but I am not talk- 
ing about men, about whether this man is good or that 
one; the question I propound tonight is this, would John 
join an oath-bound secret order? I am not talking about 
labor unions nor those organizations that simply haye an 
affirmation; I am talking about those organizations that 
demand an oatli when a man enters; those that have a 
religion — a religion with a chaplain ; a religion to bury 
the dead; that haye a religion for opening and closing 
with prayer. I am asking myself the question, would John 
join that kind of an organization? 

It seems to me that if John would remember what 
Jesus Christ preached in the sermon on the mount he 
would haye difficulty. For instance, Jesus says in Matt. 
5 :33-36 : Again ye haye heard that it hath been said by 
them of old time. Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but 
thou shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths; but I say 
nnto you, Swear not at all; neitlier by heayen, for it is 
God's throne; nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; 
neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 
Neither shalt tliou swear by thy head, because thou canst 
not uiake one hair white or black. No man eyer joined 
an oath-bound secret order Ayithout breaking that law ; no 
man eyer joined an oath-bound secret order without for- 
swearing himself, and although the promise should not 
interfere with his family, nor his churcli, nor state, it 
-does interfere with his family. That night he goes home 
and his lips are nailed shut; he can talk oyer with some 
bloated wine bibber what he cannot tell his wife. It in- 
terferes with his church, for as soon as he dies those men, 
if asked, will stand around his graye and take the place 
of the church. And it does interfere with the state, as I 



400 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

could show you from many, an unjust verdict of the jury. 
So I think John would have a little trouble in that line. 

He would not, if he would remember what he wrote 
in the third chapter of his own Gospel. John 3 : 19-21 : 
And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the 
world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because 
their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil 
hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds 
should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to 
the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they 
are wrought in God. I do not see how John could har- 
monize that with light trying to hide itself. Let your 
light so shine that men may see your good works and 
glorify your Father in heaven. Again, I do not think 
that John would forget what he wrote in John 18:20 
with his own pen concerning Jesus Christ. When they 
arrested Jesus He said : I spake openly to the world ; I 
ever taught in the synagogue, and in the temple, whither 
the Jews always resort ; and in secret have I said nothing. 
How could John go into that order? 

Furthermore, John wrote in this epistle: There are 
three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word 
and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. The first 
thing that would be asked : John, do you believe in a 
Supreme Being? Why, surely I do; every fool believes 
that. But, John would say, what do you people believe 
here? Why, we don't define what we believe; we don't 
interfere with any church; a Jew can come in if he be- 
lieves in a Supreme Being; a Christian can come in if 
he believes in a Supreme Being; a Chinaman can come 
in if he believes in a Supreme Being ; any person if white, 
or not too dark, can come in if he just believes in a Su- 
preme Being, and he is welcome. But, says John, I wrote 
a letter in the old Bible, and I wrote there that the true 
God is the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Do you all be- 
lieve that here? No, sir; we do not. Well, I don't know 
whether I can come in here or not. But, another thing, 
you can just believe as you please about that ; we let every 
man believe as he pleases. I understand you have a chap- 
lain? Yes. What does he believe? Whatever he pleases ; 



FIRST SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. 401 

he can deny Christ or not. Have you prayer in His 
name? No, sir; we cannot do that because the Jew would 
not like it, and some other men wouldn't like it, and so 
we leave Jesus out and put in the great Supreme Archi- 
tect of the Universe. Jesus can stay outside until you 
come out and then He can go home with you. Some 
people think this is only opinion, but I want you to un- 
derstand that God's Word is not opinion. An eighteen 
years' investigation of this question is not opinion. Every 
man that sits before me this evening, if he has any in- 
telligence whatever knoAvs, positively knows, that a man 
does not need to believe in Jesus Christ to be a master 
Mason, or to join any oath-bound organization, until he 
comes up to a certain degree of Masonry. You know 
that, and you know furthermore that when you come to 
your burial service of your friends there is no Christ in it. 
You know that. People say, why don't you come to 
the funerals as other preachers do? I do go. I want 
to explain myself tonight. I am willing to go to the 
funeral of any man that dies; I am willing to preach his: 
sermon; I am willing to go to his grave; I am willing 
there to give the service that he deserves; if a Christian 
I will give him a Christian burial; if no Christian I will 
not give him the Christian burial; but there is one thing 
I will not do and I want this congregation to understand 
it. I fear a great many people do not know what the 
blessing means. When I lift up my hands to pronounce 
the blessing at a grave, or anywhere else, it means that I 
sanction what is done here. If a man dies belonging to 
a secret order, if you want me to go to that grave and 
bury him, and pronounce the benediction, I will go ; but if 
you expect me to wait until another organization comes 
around that grave and has a service without Christ in it, 
and expect me to pronounce the blessing on that Christ- 
less service, I would rather have these arms torn from 
my shoulders than do that. The fault you have to find 
with me is that I stand up for Christ only as long as I 
live. I have no fault to find with men; I have no hatred 
toward any man on God's earth; I love everybody. Can 



402 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

you find a man in this city whom I hate? You cannot 
do it. I love everybody ; but there is one thing that John 
would not do; there is one thing I will not do, if I have 
got to dig somewhere for a living; I will never in my life 
pronounce a benediction on a Christless service, and you 
know that I am right. You know that I am right! I 
am not around looking for funerals; I am around look- 
ing for living people. I am trying to save your souls. 

But now, in order that you may see that I am fair, 
I have no particular fault to find with one organization 
more than the other, it is only fair to ask the question, 
Would John join the Lutherans? and I am satisfied 
if he would come to some of these old German Lu- 
theran Churches — and I am a German — and he would 
find the pews filled with big, bloated up saloon- 
keepers, John would say, I will not join the Lutherans. 
John was too clean a man, too clean in his faith and too 
clean in his life, to feel at home with people who do not 
worship and live as God wants men to live. But there is 
one thing I will say for the Lutheran Church, so far as 
Lutheranism is concerned, John was a Lutheran and he 
would never have to join the Lutheran Church either. 
VYe hear a good deal about joining church; I never found 
in the Bible that any disciple ever joined any church. You 
cannot find a single instance. I do read in the Acts of 
the AiK)stles that God added to the church daily such 
as should be saved. I do find that Jesus Christ has said 
in the third chapter of John that a man is born into the 
church. I do find that John writes in this fifth chapter 
that a man must be born into the church : Whosoever 
believeth tliat Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and 
everyone that loveth him that begat loveth him also that 
is begotten of him. By this we know tliat we love the 
children of God, when we love God, and keep His com- 
mandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep 
His commandments, and His commandments are not 
grevious. For wliatsoever is born of God overcometh the 
world : and this is the victory that overcometh the world, 
even our faith. A man is born into the church, and, born 
into the church, lie lias got a faith in the true and living 



FIRST SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. 403 

God, aud liaviug faith in the true and living God, he is a 
power that the devil and the world cannot overcome. 
After all, mv friends, it is faith that overcometh the 
world. It is faith that wins tlie victory, and faith must 
come from being born into the church, and not by join- 
ing. And so I will answer all my questions tonight by 
saying that John would not liave to join anything. When 
you were born at home you did not join your home; you 
were born there, and there is nothing in all the world 
that can take you away from the family in which you 
were born; you may Avalk away from it, but you are still 
a member of that family; your mother is your mother, 
and your father is your father, and you cannot get away 
from them because jow were born there; and so John 
was born into the Church of the Lord Jesus, and if he 
were living to-day yet he would be in that church, and 
that church would believe that the Bible is the inspired 
Word of God ; that baptism is a command of God ; that 
the Lord's Supper is the gift of God's grace, as He says. 
That man would be faithful to the church in which he is 
born until he would breathe his last, and then he would 
overcome the world and the victory would be his, and 
he would pass home where all victory and death is left 
back, conquered forever. May God bless these words to- 
night, and put you all to thinking and praying, and render 
the best service to your Master that you can, is my prayer. 
Amen. 

PRAYER. 

O God, our heavenh- Father, we thank Thee for Thy glorious truth 
that is so powerful, and so plain, and so compelling. Lord God, we 
thank Thee that in a period of a little over two years Thine own servant 
has won a victory that the world cannot overthrow, by staying close to 
Jesus. We pra)^ Thee tonight that Thou wilt impress this message upon 
the hearts of all those that are here. We pray Thee that Thou wilt 
help that every father and mother, every son and daughter and every 
little child just born shall all come into Thy kingdom through the 
means of grace. Lord our God, give us Thy Holy Spirit; do Thou 
enlighten us, call us, sanctify us and keep us. We ask a special bless- 
ing this evening upon all who are in this house. O God, help them to 
remember that Thy Word is precious ; help them to remember that we 
come to the house of God to hear what Jesus has to say; to hear what 



404 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

the Holy Spirit has to call; to hear of the Father's love; to learn more 
of the narrow way ; to live closer to the Master ; to live more intensely ; 
to find out our faults ; to hear more of the truth that will abide when 
the heavens fall. Lord, our God, do Thou bless the service of this hour, 
and now fill us with songs of praise and prayer to Thee. And especially 
do we ask Thee to bless all those that are broken-hearted; those that 
have recently laid to rest their dear ones. Watch over them; be with 
those that have their own dear ones afflicted at home. Heavpnly Father, 
be the physician of all the sick, of all the weary, of all the broken- 
hearted; heal them. Lead us all to true repentance; cleanse us of all 
our sins, in the name of Jesus Christ, and by His precious blood, O 
heavenly Father, may we pray more sweetly and earnestly His own 
prayer that He taught us : 

Our Father who art in heaven; Hallowed be Thy name; Thy 
kingdom come ; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven ; Give 
us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us ; And lead us not into temptation ; 
But deliver us from evil; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



SECOND SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. 

The Shepherd and His Sheep. 

I Peter 2 :21-25. 

fOR even hereunto were ye called : because Christ also suffered for 
us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps : who 
did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth : who, when 
He was reviled, reviled not again ; when He suffered He threatened not ; 
but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously: who His own 
self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to 
sins, should live into righteousness : by whose stripes ye were healed. 
For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the 
Shepherd and Bishop of your souls. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved in Christ: 

What a change there would be in this world if some 
little thing that God made had never appeared! What 
a change there would be in the literature and in the his- 
tory of nations if the Lord had never made a sheep! 
What a blessing the sheep has been in creation! Many 
and many a poor traveler would have starved had it not 
been that God created sheep; many a person would have 
died of cold had God not wrapped him up in the warm 
fleece of the sheep. Little would we know of the relation 
of God to man had He not created the sheep. It has 
often occurred to me that the Lord, foreseeing all things 
and knowing that the time would come when Jesus 
Christ would have to have the relation to man such as 
could not be found or explained in any other way, said, 
I will make a sheep in order that the people may know 
the relation between the shepherd and his fold. The 
first good boy that was born into this sinful world was 

405 



406 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

a shepherd; the greatest poet that ever sang was a shep- 
herd, and the greatest poem lie ever penned was this : 
The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not Avant. The great- 
est prophet that ever lived said the most beautiful thing 
he ever said when in the 40th chapter and the 11th verse 
of Isaiah, he penned these words : He shall feed His 
flock like a shepherd; He shall gather the lambs with. 
His arm, and carrv them in His bosom, and shall gently 
lead those that are with young. The great Prophet Eze- 
kiel, who soared upAvard in his language, called attention 
to that great Savior, Jesus Christ, in these words : Ezek, 
34 :23. And I will set up one Shepherd oyer them, and 
he shall feed them, even My servant David; he shall feed 
them and he shall be their shepherd. In the Gospel les- 
son for this second Sunday after Easter, we find these 
beautiful words of Christ : I am the Good Shepherd and 
know My sheep and am known of Mine. As the Father 
knoweth Me, even so know^ I the Father, and I lay down 
My life for the sheep. And other sheep I have, Avhich 
are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they 
shall hear My voice, and there shall be one fold and one 
Shepherd. Notice Avell, my friends, that the sheep hear 
the voice of their Shepherd. That man that does not 
care to go to church does not care to hear the Gospel, 
does not care for the great Shepherd of souls yet. The 
author of the letter to the Hebrew^s, speaking of Jesus 
Christ, says ^'That great Shepherd of the sheep.'' In our 
own text this evening the Apostle Peter says. For ye were 
as sheep going astray; but are uoav returned unto the 
Shepherd and Bishop of your souls. In the 5th chapter 
of this same letter, and the 4th verse, he says: And 
when the Chief Shepherd shall appear, 3^e shall receive 
a crown of glory that fadeth not away. I invite your 
attention this evening to 

THE SHEPHERD AND HIS SHEEP. 

I. The Shepherd's steps. 
II. The sheep's steps. 



SECOND SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. 407 

I. Let US notice the steps of the Shepherd. "For 
even hereunto were ye called, because Christ also suf- 
fered for us, leaving us an example that ye should fol- 
low His steps.-' What were the steps of Jesus Christ? 
How shall we follow them? You can easily know the 
steps of the Savior by noticing that they are always 
full of goodness, full of suffering, and full of patience. 

1. They are full of goodness. In the verse pre- 
vious to our text the apostle says : When ye do well and 
suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with 
God. The Lord Jesus Christ did well. His footsteps 
were always filled with goodness. Nowhere in the foot- 
steps of Christ can you find that He ever did a wrong; 
everywhere He was doing good. Whatever else may 
be said of Jesus Christ, there is one thing that the 
world has long ago acknowledged, that there never was 
such a good character as Jesus. If I were to ask the 
intelligent world today, what was the greatest and best 
character that ever walked on earth, I believe the answer 
would be unanimous, it was Jesus of Nazareth, whose 
footsteps were always filled with goodness. The Apostle 
Peter sums it all up in four little words, "Who did not 
sin,-' and adds to it the compliment, "neither was guile 
found in His mouth." To whom can I point on earth 
and say, he never sinned? It is so well known that all 
men sin that when a man stands up and says, I never 
sinned, you can get a unanimous vote that that man is 
a liar. Sin is the transgression of the law, and he that 
offendeth in one point is guilty of all. One of the best 
men that ever walked on God's earth, who laid his head 
upon the breast of the Savior, said. If we say we have 
no sin we make Him a liar and the truth is not in us. 
But look at the footsteps of Jesus! no difference where 
you find Him, as a little child His footsteps are filled 
with goodness; as a child twelve years of age they find 
Him sitting in the temple among the doctors. His foot- 
steps were filled with goodness. At the age of thirty He 
began a three years' ministry, and in that ministry He 
was constantly looking for some one, some where, to do 
an act of kindness, no difference whether it was the 



408 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

blind, or the deaf, or the crippled, or the fallen, His 
hands were always ready to do good, to lift up, to help 
heavenward, and wherever He stood. He stood in the 
footprints of goodness. Who, when He was reviled, re- 
viled not again; when He suffered He threatened not, 
but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously, 
who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the 
tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto right- 
eousness. By whose stripes ye w^ere healed. Whether 
they spit in His face, or whether they scourged Him, 
whether they nail Him to the cross, or stand before that 
cross and revile Him, we find nothing bvit hands of blessing 
upon those that curse, a prayer for those that crucify 
Him. His feet stand in the footprints of goodness. 

2. Not only is it true that his footprints are filled 
with goodness, but they are filled with suffering. Some- 
times we speak of the suff'erings of Christ as if they lasted 
only one day and one night, or sometimes as if they 
lasted only one week, and call it "Holy week"; some- 
times Ave speak of His suffering as lasting three long 
years; but, dear friends, did it ever occur to you that 
Jesus Christ suffered all the days of His life on earth? 
What suffering it w^ould be for you, a good moral man, 
to put you into a den of thieves and thugs, and keep 
you there for a period of thirty-three years! But when 
you are among thieves and thugs, it is only a man that 
is somewhat bad with men that are a good deal worse, 
but how would you feel if you were perfectly sinless, as 
Christ was, and were forced to come down on earth and 
dwell among devils and the possessed of devils? Why, 
as soon as Christ was born. His feet were thrown into 
the cold stable, and He began to suffer; His first trip 
was to Egypt, to escape the wrath of Herod; His walk 
to Jerusalem was over the pebbles and stones. Those 
blessed feet that could have walked on the stars — suf- 
fering! At the age of eight days He was called Jesus, 
and shed His first blood, and all through life, surrounded 
by ungodly men and women, looking forward and know- 
ing what is coming. He felt the pangs of death on the 
cross long before He died. You and I have escaped many 



SECOND SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. 409 

a pain through our ignorance. If some of you knew 
what would happen in the next twelve months, you would 
shudder in this moment, but God in His wisdom has kept 
it back that you might not know it. The Son of God in 
His omniscience saw Himself bleeding and dying on the 
cross for not onh- thirty-three years, but those thirty-three 
years were the physical punishment of what He saw be- 
fore the foundation of the world was laid. And then, 
when we come to speak of those last days of His life! 
Look at them revile Him, and He reviled not again. 
Watch them buffet Him, but He gives no reply. Watch 
Him as they take Him before Pontius Pilate, and scourge 
Him, fulfilling the prophecy, with His stripes they should 
be healed. Watch Him as they select the place of sever- 
est pain, where the nerxes center, in His hands and in 
His feet, there in those nerve centers they drive the nails 
in, and make Him suffer. Watch them as they select 
the place where all the blood flows through, and thrust 
the spear into His heart; they find the brow that will 
have all the pain centered in the brain, and strike down 
the crown of thorns. If ever man suffered in all the 
world it was the God-man, and if ever nerves suffered in 
pain it was in the feet of the lowly Jesus as He hanged 
upon the cross. His fooprints were filled Avith suffering. 
3. And not only were they filled with suffering, but 
they were filled with patience. When He was reviled, 
reviled not again; when He suffered He threatened not. 
Suppose you and I would have had almighty arms as 
Christ had when they spit in His face, what would we 
have done? Suppose 3^ou and I had been on that cross 
bleeding and dying, and men would have come around 
and thrust out their tongues and said. He helped others, 
let Him come down from the cross and help Himself, 
you and I would have come down, and never gone back. 
But the prophet said He should be like a lamb that is 
led to the slaughter. God knew Avhat kind of a Shepherd 
Jesus would be, and purposely created a sheep, into whose 
flesh you can cut and it never opens its mouth. God 
knew what would happen Christ, and consequently gave 
the little lamb as a tj-pe of the sufferings of Christ and 



410 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

the patience that He should have. And John cried out^ 
Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the 
world! Oh, what a wonderful fold! The Lamb becomes 
the Shepherd, and the great Shepherd the Lamb — the 
Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world, and 
opened not His mouth ! Oh, the patience of Jesus Christ 
Is it any trouble, my friends, to find the footprints of the 
great Shepherd? For even hereunto were ye called, be- 
cause Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example^ 
that ye should folloAv His steps. 

IL Let us notice also the sheep's steps as well as 
the Shepherd's. With regard to the steps of the sheep 
we find that some of them led away from Christ , some 
of them lead hack to Christ, and some of them follow 
after Christ. 

1. For ye were, as sheep going astray, but are now 
returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls. 
Ye were as sheep going astra}'. Oh, what a difference 
there is between the steps of the sheep and the steps of 
the Shepherd ! The sheep all Avent astray, and when they 
do go astray you remember they never come home of 
themselves. We are told in God's Word that no man 
can say that Jesus Christ is Lord but by the Holy Ghost. 
We are taught in God's AVord that the world as well as 
the individual, like a sheep has gone astray. Look at 
the history of the Avorld, if you please. Adam and Eve 
in tlie Garden of Eden knew their God, but in a short 
time Avhere is Cain? Out in the field Avith club lifted 
up ready to kill his good brother, out of jealousy. — Going 
astray. Look at the human race from that day until the 
flood. God gave them one hundred and twenty years to 
repent, but the sons of God Avent out and married the 
daughters of men. In other words, the family instead 
of remaining Godly and Christian, were bound to go out 
and follow the devil. Young men did not ask themselves 
the question, Is this bride of mine a Christian or not? 
Young Avomen did not ask themselves the question, Is 
this young man a Christian or not? I Avant to tell you 
young people right here tonight, the young woman that 
Avill marry an ungodly man is purchasing a hell on earth. 



SECOND SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. 411 

The young man that will marry any one but a Christian 
wife is founding a home that means hell on earth. But 
that is what the world has been doing — going astray — 
and today there are nations on earth that do not know 
who the Shepherd is. Even the eight souls that were 
saved by the great flood, all of them around the altar, 
all praying to the true and living God, in a short time 
forgot the Shepherd and strayed away. It is not God's 
fault if there is a heathen on earth today. He told them 
who He was when He began the world; after the flood 
He showed them who He was a second time, and in the 
days of the apostles the Gospel was preached to the civi- 
lized world, but where Jerusalem stood is where a great 
class of heathen is dAvelling today, and the great land 
of Egypt where the church of God had the greatest reve- 
lation the ancient world knew, is covered today with men 
who do not know their God, and if the people of our own 
city will not be faithful to the old Bible, faithful to the 
Shepherd of souls, it will not be long until our young 
people will not know who their Shepherd is. The whole 
world, I say, has been going astray, and what the world 
has done, individuals have done. 

ATe talk about good people, and about bad people. 
My dear friends, I am making an assertion that I know 
is true, from God's Holy Word, and from my own experi- 
ence and the experience of the best men I have ever met. 
There is not one sitting before me tonight who has not, 
somewhere in his life, some place, some steps that he took 
that were not in the footprints of Jesus Christ. I am not 
saying that every man has been a thief; I am not saying 
that every man has been an impure man as the world calls 
impurity, but I do say in every man's life somewhere there 
has been something of which he would be glad if the world 
should never know. My friends, we have all gone astray. 
The footprints of man have been away from God, away 
from the great Shepherd. For ye were as sheep going 
astray. 

2. But, my dear friends, thanks be to God, there is 
an opportunity for man to come back to the great Shep- 
lierd. "^But are now returned unto the Shepherd and 



412 THjE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

Bishop of your souls.'' The apostle Peter was writing to 
a class of people who had been heathen and became Chris- 
tian and had come home to their God again. Now we can 
find in history many a one has gotten the new life of re- 
generation, and the returning life in conversion. The 
starting point is the new life. Some people never seem to 
distinguish between regeneration and conversion. They 
talk about the time they were converted as if a man could 
only be converted once in his life. The great trouble with 
some people is that they never were converted but once, 
and consequently they are going to the devil today. Do 
you understand that? Do you understand, my friends, 
that when a man is converted and turns around and fol- 
lows God, the moment he goes wrong if he is only con- 
verted once he stays wrong? A man can be regenerated 
only once, as he can be born only once. No man has been 
born into this world tAvice, but only once, and so no Chris- 
tian has ever been regenerated twice, but only once. Ex- 
cept a man be born of water and the Spirit he cannot 
enter the kingdom of heaven. He must be born before he 
can come into the world and before he can see the world, 
and just so a man must be born again before he can see 
heaven or enter heaven. But when he is born again he is 
not in heaven yet, and when he is born again then he must 
also be nurtured, and on the way of the Christian life 
when he perchance strays off of the right path, God says, 
Come back to the Shepherd, and when he turns back he 
is converted. The apostle Peter was a Christian the day 
that Jesus said. Follow Me, and he followed Him; but 
the time came when the old fisher spirit ruled in his heart, 
just as the time sometimes comes in your heart when the 
old Satanic spirit gets the upper hand, and then Peter be- 
gan to curse and damn and reject Jesus Christ, and Jesus 
Christ said. When thou art converted, strengthen thy 
brethren. He said, Peter, you are going to fall, and Satan 
will sift you like wheat, and he would have damned you, 
but I have prayed God to spare you. When you do fall, 
then come back, come back to Me again, Peter, and I will 
restore you, and, having fallen, you will have sympathy 
for other fallen people, and instead of pushing them down 



SECOND SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. 413 

you will lift them njj and say, I thank my God that I have 
been so close to the gates of hell that I have mercy on 
the fallen man and love to lift him up ; and so the apostle 
Peter says you have gone astray, but you have returned 
and come back to the great Shepherd of your souls. Oh, 
let me call upon every one in this house tonight, if you 
have ever strayed away from Jesus Christ, come back 
tonight, come back to the great Shepherd of souls, and da 
not go any further astray. 

3. And then when the wandering child of God has 
come back to the Savior, he is told to follow in His steps. 
"P'or even hereunto were 3^e called, because Christ also 
suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should 
follow His steps.'- And now since you know that the steps 
of Jesus Christ are filled with goodness, and filled with 
suffering, and filled with patience, you ought to know 
how to follow in His steps. ^'Do well, for so is the will 
of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the 
ignorance of foolish men. For this is thankw^orthy, if a 
man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering 
wrongfully. For wiiat gior}^ is it, if, w^hen ye be buffeted 
for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye 
do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is 
acceptable with God." AVhen ye do well. It is not hard 
to find Avhether a man is walking in the footsteps of Jesus. 
If Jesus spent His whole life doing good, there is only 
one way to follow in His steps, and that is to do good. 
Try to act out the life of Jesus Christ on earth. When 
He was reviled. He reviled not again; when He suffered 
He threatened not ; He was good all the time, doing just 
exactly what was right. Are we doing well? Are we 
doing our very best? I know that Jesus Christ was perfect 
and we are not ; I know that He never sinned, and we are 
by nature sinners; but is your object as you sit before me 
tonight, having been baptized into Jesus Christ, and put 
on Christ, to walk in His footprints? I am sure if you 
understand what I am trying to say tonight, you will 
know far better how to act in the future than you knew 
in the past. You say it is all right to go to the dance. 
None of us will take the position that dancing is wrong,. 



414 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

but could you imagine Jesus Christ going to the ball 
dancing with his neighbor's wife, staying up until mid- 
night or three o'clock in the morning, riding home in a 
cab? Can you imagine Jesus Christ sitting down for three 
or four long hours i:)]aying cards, just the same as the 
gamblers down in the den? Can you imagine Jesus Christ 
so spending His time in His short life, Avith so much to 
do and vsuch a short time to do it? I am not going to say 
tonight what is wrong nor what is right. There are cer- 
tain questions that you never can draw the lines, but I 
am going to give you a rule that will be a guide for you 
and for me. What can I do, in the balance of my short 
life that will exhibit me to the world as near like Christ 
as possible? That is my path and must be yours if 3^ou 
walk in His footsteps. 

And we must not only do well, but if ye are going 
to walk in His footprints Ave must be willing to suffer 
for righteousness' sake. ^'For what glory is it if when ye 
be buffeted for faults ye shall take it patiently? but if, 
when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, 
this is acceptable with God." Now then, if I do a wrong, 
and the law punishes me and I take it patiently, I do not 
know that there is anything rery manly about that. I 
have got to take it. But suppose that I do good, and only 
good, and men lie about me, as they have lied about me 
in Mansfield a thousand times, and I suffer for it, and 
bear it patiently, that is Avalking in the footprints of Jesus 
Christ. Some men, when they lose their homes, and their 
money; other men, Avhen they are suffering on account 
of sickness, try to comfort themselves by saying, well, we 
must bear the cross. Why, sickness is no cross; financial 
loss is no cross; a child of the devil can get sick just as 
well as a Christian. Any child of the devil can lose his 
money. That is not bearing the cross. I do not believe 
that one Christian out of a thousand knows what it means 
to bear the cross. Jesus Christ might have taken His 
cross and thrown it off His shoulder instead of breaking 
down, but He bore it, for truth's sake, and for redemp- 
tion's sake; He bore it because He did right and the sin- 
ful world punished Him for it. That is the cross. A man 



SECOND SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. 415 

is not bearing the cross of Christ because he is suffering 
pain; but the man that bears the cross is the man that 
walks in the footprints of Jesus Christ when the world 
sneers at him; does right when the world damns him for 
it; does right when the world persecutes him for it, when 
he could throw that cross off in a moment if he would 
only walk with the world. You will never understand 
what it means to bear the cross until you remember that 
the w^orld and the flesh are ruled by the devil and as soon 
as a man comes out from that government and w^alks in 
the footprints of Jesus Christ, the world has no use for 
him any more, and consequently will scoff, and sneer, and 
abuse the man of God. And so you never know why so 
many professed Christians have no cross to bear any 
more? It is because they are good Christians on Sunday 
and the devil has no objection to that; they are good 
Christians on Monday, and the devil has no objection 
to that ; they are good Christians all week if there is noth- 
ing special going on, and the devil has no objections to 
that. The devil is willing that you and I shall be Chris- 
tians all the days of our lives, providing only for half an 
hour before we die, or a few minutes every week, we will 
walk with him. That is all he asks for. And oh, how 
many preachers of the Gospel there are today, and pro- 
fessed Christians w^ho are big talkers about Christ on Sun- 
day, in the Sunday School class and in the church, but 
if a band of men goes tramping around on the street with 
men who have no use for Christ, they will walk right 
along, and then they talk about bearing the cross. Those 
men W'Ould w^alk with the devil, no difference where he 
goes. That is the trouble with Christianity today. You 
show me a minister of the Gospel, or a Christian layman, 
who is going to walk right in the footprints of Jesus 
Christ, no difference what the world says, and I will 
show^ you a man that is going to be damned by the world, 
and that is w^hat it means to walk in the footprints of 
Jesus Christ, and that is what thousands of professed 
ministers of the Gospel, and professed Christians abso- 
lutely know nothing about today, and that is why we are 
sometimes misunderstood. Jesus was misunderstood. 



416 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

The prominent men of the city said, Crucify Him! The 
prominent men of the city went out and hired men to 
cry out Crucify Him! Crucify Him! and were going to 
hang Him on the cross, no difference what He said; and 
Christ had sense enough to keep silent. 

"For ye were as slieep going astray, but are now re- 
turned (O God, that they might all return!) unto the 
Shepherd and Bishop of your souls." You must not only 
be willing to suffer for Christ's sake if you wish to walk 
in His footprints, but you must be patient. It is remark- 
able in the trial of Christ how often He kept perfectly 
silent. When He was reviled. He reviled not again ; when 
He suffered He threatened not, but He committed every- 
thing to the Judge of Whom He knew that all things 
would be judged righteously; and thus you and I must 
patiently go along, let the world say what it will. Little 
do I care what any man thinks, just so God knows I am 
right. What do I care for your opinion, or for any man's 
opinion? When God sets me straight I am straight and 
the whole Avorld cannot throw me over; and thus I say 
to all of you tonight, get into the footprints of Jesus 
Christ; walk in that path if you must suffer and bear the 
cross, and then, when you are in those footprints, bear 
the suffering patiently. Do all you can for the glory of 
the Master. Be happy in Him all the days of your life. 
What was meant by that beautiful verse in this morning's 
Sunday School lesson : My joy shall be in you, and your 
joy shall be full? Sometimes people have come to me and 
sympathized with me because of what the people said, 
as if they thought I was unhappy. I am never happier 
than when the devil stirs i3eople up. That convinces me 
that I have stated some truth, and that convinces me that 
before Sunday evening God will overrule the devil and 
bring some man to hear the Gospel and be saved. A young 
man came to my study this last week and said, "Can I 
get a copy of your last Sunday's Easter sermon?" "I 
guess so. Why do you want it?" "I want to see what 
you really did say about the Presbyterians." I said, "I 
don't think I honored the Presbyterians enough to say 
anything about them ; however, T did say a few things 



SECOND SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. 417 

-about the Lutherans; but/' I said, '*if jou will just do 
two things, you will accommodate me, and that is, in the 
first place, when you meet these people on the street that 
tell you these lies, just tell them I said considerable about 
the Lutherans; and, in the second place, thank them for 
me for this free adTcrtising; I would be willing to pay 
them for it.'' What we want to learn is just to go straight 
along, tell the truth, and let the world talk. There is 
always one truth teller to straighten up every liar. 

This beautiful story was told and published not long 
ago, of Sister Dora. Sister Dora, having made a certain 
mistake in her life, made up her mind that she would 
just devote the balance of her life to the Lord Jesus Christ, 
her great Shepherd. So she went to a hospital and asked 
permission to wait upon the sick, to hand them water 
Avhen they were thirsty, to give them medicine when they 
needed it, and to be Avith them that she might do as Jesus 
would do. It was not long until they observed that at 
the head of her bed she had a bell, and that bell was con- 
nected with every cot in the hospital, and no difference 
what time of night it was, the patients would ring the 
bell» and Sister Dora A\'0uld leap from her bed and give 
to the one that was thirsty, a drink of water, to another, 
medicine; for those that were helpless she moved their 
hands and their feet, bathed their hot faces with the cool- 
ing water ; and thus she went on day after day, week after 
week, not an hour of the night was her own. When her 
friends came to her and said, How can you stand it? How 
can you be so patient? How can you be so happy? Oh, 
said she, I am walking in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, 
and every time I hear that little bell I think of that 
beautiful verse. The Master is come and calleth for thee. 
Let us rise in prayer. 

PRAYER. 

O God, our heavenly Father, we pray to Thee to give us the spirit 
of Sister Dora ; help us to be willing to be awakened any hour to do 
something for our fellow men, that we, too, may walk in the footsteps 
of Jesus Christ. We thank Thee for a free salvation. We thank Thee 
for a saving grace and mercy. We thank Thee for restoration and call- 
27 



418 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

mg back into the footsteps of the great Shepherd. And now, Thoir 
Shepherd of souls, Thou who hast seen us go astray and who hast 
again brought us back. Oh, take us by Thy hand and lead us day and 
night in Thy steps. Help, heavenl}'^ Father, that the older we grow the 
nearer we may draw to Thee, the more we may live in the very center 
of the footsteps of Him who said, Follow Me. Lord, forgive us for 
straying away from Thee so often, and forgive us for apologizing for 
our sins. We have sinned against better knowledge. We have known 
better. We have been reared somewhat better than we have acted. 
Lord do Thou help that we may now come back to Thee, acknowledging 
our sins, asking Thy forgiveness, walking in Thy way, calling upon 
Thee in the language of Thine own prayer : 

Our Father who art in heaven ; Hallowed be Thy name ; Thy 
kingdom come ; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven ; Give 
us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation; 
But deliver us from evil; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power^ 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



THIRD SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. 

The Dearly Beloved. 

I Peter 2 :ll-20. 

DEARLY Beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain 
from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul ; having your con- 
versation honest among the Gentiles : that, whereas they speak 
against you as evil doers, they may by your good works, which they shall 
behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. Submit yourselves to every 
ordinance of man for the Lord's sake : whether it be to the king as 
supreme, or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the 
punishment of evil doers, and for the praise of them that do well. For 
so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the 
ignorance of foolish men : as free, and not using j^our liberty for a 
cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. Honor all men. 
Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king. Servants, be sub- 
ject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, 
but also to the forward. For this is thankworth}^ if a man for con- 
science toward God endure grief, suffering wrongful^. For what glory 
is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? 
but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is 
acceptable with God. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved in Christ: 

It was a common expression of the great Tertnllian 
that when tlie world condemns ns, God forgives us. It 
is absolutely impossible for the world and the true Chris- 
tian church to be at love with each other. We are told 
distinctly that we are not to love the world, neither the 
things that are in the world, and the strange thing among 
many professed Christians in the present day is that they 
cannot understand at all why there should be any dif- 
ference between the church and the world; they seem to 

419 



420 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

think that that minister of the Gospel who is not popular 
Avith the world is not worth anything, while the truth is 
that the minister of the Gospel that is popular with the 
world is not worth having. There must be a strained re- 
lation between Christians and the world; there must be 
a strained relation not only between the church at large 
and the sinful world, but there must be one between the 
true Christians in the church and a false minister of the 
Gospel. It is absolutely impossible for a man to be in 
the pulpit, and be a worldly man and not have a strained 
relation with the people in the church Avho are true Chris- 
tians. And it is just as true that a faithful minister of 
the Gospel cannot live otherwise than in a strained rela- 
tion between himself and members of the church who 
are not true Christians. For just as surely as there is a 
strained relation between the world and the church at 
large, there must be between the Christian in the pew and 
the false preacher in the pulpit, as well as between the 
true preacher in the pulpit and the false Christian in 
the pew. 

While it is true that there must be a strained rela- 
tion between the world and the church, it is just as true 
on the other hand, that there must be the most pleasant 
relation between every true Christian and true Chris- 
tians ; there must be a beautiful relation between the true 
Christian in the church and every other true Christian 
in the church. You cannot imagine two true Christians 
at law with each other; you cannot imagine two true 
Christians not speaking to each other Avhen the oppor- 
tunity is given; you cannot imagine tAvo true Christians 
who would not look at each other. When this is true of 
Christians in the pew, it is doubly true of a faithful man 
of God in the pulpit and a faithful Christian in the pew. I 
maintain that there is no closer relation outside of the fam- 
ily in the world than betAveen a faithful man of God and 
a faithful people in the church. It is true sometimes it 
takes a certain amount of time for people to understand 
each other, but when we have once stood by the bedside 
of the dying, and when we have once entered into that 
closer relation that reveals the man to the man, I say 



THIRD SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. 421 

the relation of a true servant of God and his people is so 
intimate that it never ceases. There is something of the 
fore-taste of that relation between Christ and His church 
when He calls Himself the Bridegroom and His Church 
the Bride. The apostle Peter has this relation in mind 
when he addresses the Christians in the heathen land in 
this general epistle, by the beautiful title, "Dearly be- 
loved." May the Holy Spirit this morning help us to 
understand what is meant by 

THE DEARLY BELOVED. 

I. Who are they? 
II. What must they do? 

are the two questions I desire to answer this morning. 

I. Who are these dearly beloved? In order to get 
the apostle's answer we must read the previous two verses : 
But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy 
nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the 
praises of Him who bath called you out of darkness into 
His marvelous light. Which in time past were not a peo- 
ple but are now the people of God: which had not ob- 
tained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Dearly be- 
loved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain 
from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul. 

In these words we have the qualifications of the dearly 
beloved. In the first place he calls them a chosen gen- 
eration. The people of God are a chosen people. We 
call the children of Israel the chosen people. Ever since 
sin came into the world a man by nature is born in sin 
and is a child of wrath. In order to belong to the dearly 
beloved he must be called and chosen as a peculiar gen- 
eration. Never in the history of the world do we know 
of a single time that any man got to be a Christian by 
his birth. The children of Christian parents must be 
born again just as well as the children who are born of 
heathen. No man, even John the Baptist himself, could 
be born a Christian. He had to be born again, and there- 
fore became one of the proclaimers of the means of the 
new birth. 



422 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

Not only are Ave a chosen generation, but as the 
dearly beloved, Ave belong to the royal priesthood. In 
ancient times the priest was considered the highest man 
in authority. A special family was chosen by the Lord to 
represent the priesthood. These Christians living in 
heathen lands, coming from the Jewish race, lay great 
stress upon the priesthood. They cannot imagine that 
now that people are born out of heathendom into the 
Christian church, that they Avould be on the same parallel 
Avith the Jew; nor could they understand hoAv one Chris- 
tian in the church could be as much a priest as the other. 
Living in the Old Testament dispensation thcA^ had made 
up their minds that one man, as priest, was far above the 
others. And do you know that same idea prevails largely 
to-day in mam^ Christian churches. How many ministers 
walk along the street as if to say, I am a greater man 
than you; I am far aboA-e you; while the real truth is 
that we are all priests, and we are all on the same com- 
mon level ; Ave are all a royal priesthood. Jesus is now 
our King, and as dearly beloA^ed, no one has a right to 
think himself far aboA^e the other, for we are all born in 
sin and are saved only by the one Eedeemer, eTesus Christ, 
and by the one Holy Spirit Avho calls and gathers us, 
and thereby makes us a chosen generation and a royal 
priesthood. 

Who are Ave, the dearly beloved? Not only are we a 
chosen generation and a royal priesthood, but an holy 
nation. A nation is usually judged by its ruler. Any 
nation that has a Christian ruler is usually classed as a 
Christian nation. When Ave talk about our oavu country 
being a Christian land, Ave do not mean that exerj citizen 
of America is a Christian, but we do rejoice in the fact 
that Ave haA^e in the president's chair of this country a 
man of God ; Ave do rejoice in the fact that we haA-e in the 
president's chair a man AA^ho loA^es the family, and loves 
the things that are good and holy, and everything that 
he says and does is Avorking for the one great object of 
making this land a Christian land. In this Christian land 
there may be many heathen; there are many heathen, 
there are scoffers, but the land as such, the nation is an 



THIRD SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. 423 

holy nation, not because we are holy in ourselves, but 
because we are followers of Him who is holiness Him- 
self, Jesus Christ. 

Such are some of the characteristics of the dearly 
beloved, but the apostle goes on and gives some more. 
"A peculiar people ; that ye should show forth the praises 
of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His 
marvelous light.'' What is there so peculiar about this 
Christian nation? What is it that makes the Christian 
peculiar from all other people? Well, his peculiarity 
lies in this, that he is twice born. A man who is no Chris- 
tian has only been born once, has only been born of the 
flesh and is flesh, born into a sinful world and is nothing 
but a sinner, and all that he does is sin. Whatever is 
not of faith is sin. Do you know there are many people 
who seem to think that even ungodly people can do good. 
It is absolutely impossible in God's sight. A serpent, 
no difference what he does, is doing the act of a serpent. 
A man that is born in sin, until he is born again, has no 
faith in God, and whatever is not of faith is sin. I might 
possibly illustrate this to a certain extent by saying that 
if a boy of your family would go and do something very 
harmful to his own mother, and even deny that his father 
is his father, that boy might do what he pleased, he could 
not please that family; that boy could not do anything 
in that home that would give pleasure to the parents. 
How could a boy that slaps his own mother, denies his 
own father, no difference what he does, do good in that 
family? Noav then, a man that is born in sin and not born 
again is not a child of God, and whatever he does is un- 
godly, and consequently he does not belong to the peculiar 
people of the children of God. When this man is born 
again, then he believes in God the Father, Son and Holy 
Ghost, and whatever he does now he does to the glory of 
God instead of to his own glory, and whatever he does is 
pleasing to God because it is done by that new birth from 
on high that makes him a peculiar man, a peculiar Chris- 
tian, and the Christians together a peculiar people. 

Dearly beloved. They have come out of the darkness 
into the marvelous light; they are living no more the life 



424 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

of sin and Satan, but have come out on the glorious path 
that leads to heaven. "Which in time past were not a 
people, but are now the people of God: which had not 
obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy." Isn't that 
a wonderful statement? The Apostle Peter declares here 
that there was a time when the people were not a people ; 
that the people of God lived in a time when they were 
more like brutes than like men; that the people of God 
lived in a time when they were rightly called Satan's 
rebels instead of people, and it is not strange that the 
apostle should speak of this great fact. When God made 
man He made him in His own image. Now take the image 
away from man and what is he? He is no more what 
God made him. The consequence is that God divides the 
man who is not in the image of Himself from the man 
who is created in His image, or who, having lost the 
image, is brought back into that image. What is a man 
who is not a child of God? He is a rebel against heaven. 
Not only is he a rebel against heaven, he is a child of 
the devil, and how can a child of the devil be a child of 
God? and how can a child of the devil call a child of 
God brother? or how can a child of God call a child of 
the devil brother? A man has just as much right to go 
out and call his horse his brother, and even more so, 
than he has a child of the devil. Consequently the Apostle 
Peter says, I want you to understand that the dearly 
beloved are a people who at one time were not people 
at all, rebels against heaven; now you are children of 
God, and consequently the dearly beloved. 

Another qualification that he gives to these dearly 
beloved is that they are strangers and pilgrims. "I be- 
seech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly 
lusts, which war against the soul." It does seem to me 
that that is one of the hardest lessons that some people 
liave to learn, that they are strangers and pilgrims. If 
strangers here, then this is not our home; if pilgrims here, 
then this is no place to settle down, and yet how many 
people there are who are substantially living as if this 
were their eternal home, and some living as if they were 
tihvays to stay just where tliey are. Now a pilgrim moves 



THIRD SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. 425 

onward. A stranger thinks of home. How many people 
there are that have got their minds constantly down on 
earth and earthly things, so that it becomes necessary for 
God to come down into our homes and with a terrible blow 
make us understand what words will never make us under- 
stand. I am not speaking now of any special visitation, 
but simply of the love of Providence that comes into our 
homes at times and teaches us the great fact that we will 
learn no other way, that we are strangers and pilgrims 
here. I know from my own experience that earth is no 
more to me what it was years ago, and I am satisfied 
when God comes into your home and takes your only son 
and lifts him up to heaven, you will learn a lesson that 
you never knew before, and when He comes into your 
home and begins to sever ties that have been so sacred, 
you will find out what the Apostle Peter meant when he 
said. Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and 
pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against 
the soul. A pilgrim and a stranger is one who should 
never be burdened. How many people there are that are 
burdening themselves in this world, and consequently 
make no progress. If I were to show you today a man who 
intended to go to California tomorrow morning, if I were 
to show you that man down here along the Pennsylvania 
railroad filling a whole freight car with all of his wealth 
because he wants to take a trip to San Francisco, you 
would say that man is a fool. If he wants to go on a 
visit as a pilgrim to California he does not want to take 
a whole freight load along. On the other hand, if I show 
you another man this morning who is ready to start for 
California, and you ask him. Have you got your ticket? 
No. Any money? No. Going to take anything with you? 
No. You would say, there is another fool. The one wants 
to go, taking nothing; the other wants to go and take 
everything with him. They do not know that nothing 
is a burden, on the one hand, and too much a burden on 
the other. The man who is a pilgrim on this earth must 
learn the great lesson that he does not want to take too 
many trunks, nor too many satchels, nor to start with 
empty pockets. Consequently if we want to be pilgrims 



426 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

and strangers here on earth, and live the life of the dearly 
beloved, we have got to take our minds off of the wealth 
of the world as if that were our God; and on the other 
hand, stop living that kind of a life that makes us so poor 
that we do not know how we are going to pay the next 
grocery bill. We have got to stop living that kind of a 
life that when old age comes will leave us at the mercy 
of other people, but do as God taught us, work and save 
and pray, and just have enough to keep us comfortable, 
and do not take so much that it will be a burden, and in 
that way remember that our home is not on earth, but on 
high, and as pilgrims and strangers here on earth re- 
member that we are the dearly beloved. 

II. Having defined who these dearly beloved are, let 
us notice, What should they do? 

I would ansAver on the authority of my text that these 
pilgrims and strangers, these dearly beloved should fight 
a noble fight for the purity of the home. "I beseech you, 
as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which 
war against the soul." The Apostle Peter did not say, 
Dearly beloved, you will have no fleshly lusts ; he did not 
say, When you are saved you will have no battles to fight 
an}^ more. We sometimes hear Christians talking as if 
they had no temptations any more, and when we hear 
that we are almost led to say, I Avish you would take your 
Avings and fly to heaven. The real fact is that we who 
are here upon earth are still living in our fleshly bodies, 
and the man or Avoman who has a good deal of brain 
and intelligence has the hardest battle to fight, and the 
thing for us as pilgrims and strangers to remember is 
that it is not an easy thing to live a Christian life; it 
is not an easy thing to be pure hearted, and the battle 
that Ave must fight and fight hard is to be pure ourselves, 
in thought, in mind, in order that Ave may not disgrace 
the home of Avhich Ave are a part. The man who Avants 
purity of home uiust first of all see to it himself that he 
is pure hearted and a Christian, and as I said before, 
this can only be done by a prayerful life, asking God to 
give us grace for every hour and strength for every 
moment. Therefore I A\onld say this morning, as dearly 



THIRD SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. 427 

beloved do not imagine tJiat yon are going to get throngh 
life AA'itliont any strnggies, and do not imagine that it 
will not take a bitter fight to live aright. I know from 
my life that I haA^e fouglit the fight of purity, and I know 
that speaking from the world's standpoint I have no dis- 
grace hanging back of me. It takes a battle for purity, 
a battle for the purity of the home, a battle for the purity 
of the nation; and I would say right here, dear Christian 
friends, do not think it is smart to let your little boy 
and girl play beaux too young; they will play you to 
shame some of these days. Do not imagine that we can 
go right through this life and tliat everything is all right 
because it is style and tolerated. For my part I pray 
and beg for the purity of our children, and for the purity 
of our lionie, and in order to have pure homes we must 
have pure fathers, and pure mothers, and pure daughters^ 
and we must haA^e the arms of love and protection thrown 
around every one, and pray God that Avhen the tempta- 
tion is the greatest the opportunity may be the least, even 
then we pray God to remoA^e the temptation. Yes, there 
is a battle on hands for the dearly beloved. 

Not only must we pray and fight for the salvation 
of souls and purity of the home, but we must aim to be 
good citizens. HaAdng your conversation honest among the 
Gentiles, that Avhereas they speak against you as evil 
doers, they may by your good works, which they shall be- 
hold, glorify God in the day of visitation. Submit your- 
selves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, 
Avhether it be to the king as supreme; or unto governors, 
as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of 
evil doers, and for the praise of them that do well. We 
cannot OA^erlook the fact that Ave are here for good citizen- 
ship, and any professed Christian AA^ho does not remember 
at the polls as Avell as in his daily life that it is his duty 
to speak arid A^ote for the Avelfare and the purity of the 
nation, is not a good citizen. We ought to remember, my 
friends, as dearly beloved, that Caesar is always a heathen, 
no difference where you look in the Avorld. I know that 
Caesar stands for ruler, but it stands for more than that; 
it stands for government in all its ramifications, and the 



428 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

government of every nation on earth as long as the world 
stands will be Caesar — Avill be heathen. These professed 
Christians were Jewish Christians, living in a heathen 
land, and they supposed they would have no right noAV to 
obey a heathen king, that their privilege was to obey 
the Lord as King of kings and Lord of lords, and to treat 
their under-subjects and governors as they pleased. Dear 
friends, the Apostle Peter calls their attention to the fact 
that government is of God, and that no difference if the 
government does make a mistake, it is to be honored and 
respected, and as good citizens we must obey the laws. If 
the laws are bad, full obeyance to the laws will overthrow 
them ; if good they must be obeyed. Any law except that 
absolutely contrary to the plain command of God must be 
obeyed for conscience' sake, and must be obeyed for the 
government's sake. Therefore let us remember that as 
dearly beloved we must be true citizens in this heathen 
land, the world. By our good works we must give an 
answer to the Gentiles. They will find fault with us, but 
the best answer you can give is to live a Godly life. 

Not only are we to be good citizens, but we are to 
be faithful servants. For so is the will of God, that with 
well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish 
men; as free and not using your liberty for a cloak of 
maliciousness, but as the ser\ ants of God. Honor all men. 
Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king. 
Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not 
only to the good and gentle, but also to the forward. 
How often we find that young men think they are really 
to be the boss in a factory instead of obeying tlie foreman. 
How often in the home we find people who seem to think 
that the servant is the master, and the master and mistress 
are the servants. If there is any one thing that God 
wanted to teach us in the fourth commandment and 
throughout the Word, it is this, that the employed is to 
be obedient to the employer; that the servant is to be 
true to the master, and what a rebellion we are creating 
in our own country by thinking that a man is considered 
great when he stands up and says, I will let no man boss 
me. The real truth is that any man can be stubborn, and 



THIRD SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. 429 

stubbornness is no proof of greatness. An animal not 
long ago went out on the railroad track when an engine 
was coming along^ and scratched the dust, and pawed, and 
said, Engine, get off the track. Well, the engine simply 
knocked him off. That animal was an emblem of the 
stubborn man that stands in the world and says, I will 
see whether I will be subject to any one. It is manly to 
be obedient. It is manly to give service; and there is 
no nobler work in all the world than to be a noble servant. 
The president of the United States is not our ruler; he 
is our servant. He is serving the people of the United 
States, and they that send him are greater than he that 
is sent. The people of the United States are greater than 
the president. The servant in the home by his obedience 
makes himself great. The scholar in the school that will 
rebel against a teacher, or a principal, or a superintendent, 
lias bad training at home. Honor those that are placed 
over you, is the commandment of our (xod. Let us learn, 
therefore, as dearly beloved, that the true mark of great- 
ness is obedience to those who are placed over us. 

Not only should we remember this as the dearly be- 
loved, but we should also remember that the privilege of 
liberty is sometimes overstepped. '^As free and not using 
your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the ser- 
vants of God.'' There was a time in my own history when 
I was taught by the actions of many people that whenever 
we have got the liberty to do a thing, we must do it, in 
spite of T^']lat anybody thinks. I have seen men who were 
good, professed Christians, that just because somebody 
thought it was wrong to drink whisky, would go and buy 
«ome and stand up and drink it, to show they had the 
liberty. I have seen men who, just because they were told 
not to do certain tilings, to give offense, would do them, 
just to show that they had the liberty to do them. Some- 
times it becomes absolutely necessary to show that we 
have got the liberty to do certain things, but let us not 
forget that we are taught not to offend each other, and 
that it is absolutely wrong for every man to go to the 
limit of his liberty, because right at the edge of his liberty 
I)egins the liberty of the next man. John B. Goff, that 



430 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

great temperance lecturer, used to stand on the platform 
and show the difference betAveen real liberty and assumed 
liberty. He said, '^I as a man have a perfect right to 
stand here and strike from ni}^ shoulder, and this is my 
liberty ; but if a man is standing within half a foot of me 
and I strike his nose, my liberty ends where his nose be- 
gins.'' That shoAvs just exactly what liberty means. Your 
libert}' stops where the next man's liberty begins, and 
there are some people who imagine that no difference how 
long their arms are, they can strike where they please. As 
dearly beloved you must remember that this world is 
full of men besides yourself, full of people who have their 
rights as you have yours, and that your rights must end 
where the next man's rigiits begin, and as dearly beloved 
I would urge upon you s trough^ never to forget that kind- 
ness goes a great deal further than force. During the 
French war there was a noble pastor by the name of 
Machtolph, living in the town of Moetlingen of Wuertem- 
berg. This noble pastor was visited by some soldiers of 
the army with the view of ransacking the parsonage and 
robbing him of Avliat he had. Instead of standing out 
on the porch with weapons to defend his home, he un- 
locked the house, unlocked every trunk and chest, threw 
open the whole residence and said. Walk in and help your- 
selves. They went through the house, surprised at the 
privilege, took everything they could lay their hands on, 
and started away. They met the general of the army and 
told him the wonderful story of a man back there in the 
church parsonage who did as just described. ^^Why," the 
general said, "I will have to see that man." He took 
three or four of his men with him, walked into the open 
liouse and said, "Is there anything else here that we can 
get?" "Only one thing that I know of," he said, "there is 
a piece of linen hanging out on the line but it isn't quite 
dry; if you will just Avait a little, you can have that too." 
Til en they started off. He happened to think after they 
started that he had two silver spoons hid. He got them 
and ran after the general and said, "I beg your pardon, 
I still have two silver spoons, and here is one of them." 
"No, I will not take it." "Yes, you must take it as a 



THIRD SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. 431 

souvenir of what you have done this morning." He took 
the spoon and went to the army. They began to talk 
this matter over. There were members of this pastor's 
church present, and they told the story of that great man 
of love, until the soldiers said, "Everything that we 
took must go back,-' and they carried back his silver spoon 
and all that they had taken, and regarded him very highly. 
In other words, this man Machtolph conquered a whole 
army by just simply telling them, "Here is the house, take 
all that you want if you think it is right." He did more 
than an army could have done. He was the victor and 
they were the conquered. Let us learn that true liberty 
consists in letting people sometimes do the sinful, dam- 
nable thing, that they may see their own wickedness, re- 
pent, and come back to God. 

Last of all I Avould say that as dearly beloved, we 
must walk in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. This text, 
as you will notice, is from the same chapter as the one 
delivered last Sundaj^, In His steps. The verse just re- 
ferred to shows us hoAv Ave should walk : "For this is 
thankv>orthy, if a man for conscience toAvard God cu- 
lture grief, suifering Avrongfully. For Avhat glory is it, 
if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it 
patiently? but if, Avhen ye do well, and suffer for it, ye 
take it patiently, this is acceptable Avith God." Do aa^cII, 
no difference what it costs; suffer for it though wrong- 
fully, and walk in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. This 
is acceptable to the P'ather in heaA^en. As dearly beloved 
we must walk in the footsteps of Jesus. If you do wrong 
and are punished for it, that is right, that is nothing to 
boast of, but Avhen you do right, Avhen you knoAv that you 
do right, and you suffer for it, as Jesus did, carrying His 
cross to Calvary, as Jesus did when He bled and died, 
that is Christian, and that is the thing that God will bless 
in this Avorld. The following little notice, taken from our 
Sunday School lesson of last week illustrates what I 
want to say : Not long ago a fire broke out in a Formosan 
village and two houses were soon wrapped in flames. One 
of them was saved — the house of a heathen Chinaman; 
the owner of the other house is a Christian, who happened 



432 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

to be away from home, and, as nobody tried to save his 
house, it was burned down. There was a great laughter 
among the villagers at the Christian's misfortunes. '^That 
is the worth of your religion," they said to him. A day or 
two after a company of men were seen coming across the 
fields, and, when they got near, it was seen that they were 
ladened with tools, wood and articles of furniture. The 
village was astir. What was it? Who were the men? 
They were the members of the church to which their 
neighbor belonged, and they had come from their homes, 
some miles away, to rebuild his house, which they did, 
while the villagers gasped with wonder. Nothing like it 
had ever been seen. Such a religion could not be 
laughed at. 

Here you find a picture of the love of the brotherhood. 
The Apostle Peter said, "Honor all men. Love the 
brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.'' As dearly 
beloved then we must love each other, stretch out our 
hands and help each other in time of need. We must 
not forget the poor box. For some time nothing has been 
said about that, but we still have men lying at the point 
of death, earning no money, no income. I have now a 
letter in my study which reads like this, in substance : "I 
am very sorry that I must ask for help. This is the first 
time in twelve years that we have not had plenty in our 
home, but with my sick husband lying at the point of 
death, the children hungry, and no way to earn anything 
myself, I must ask you for help." My dear friends, is 
there one of us this morning that has not the inclination 
to help one in that condition? The next time it may be 
you, it may be me; and when I am lying helpless in my 
home and cannot do anything to support my wife and 
children, I want you to help me. May God help us this 
morning as dearly beloved, to walk in the footsteps of 
Jesus Christ. Amen. 

PRAYER. 

O Father in heaven, we thank Thee for Thy blessed Word, each 
verse of which is full of fruit and we shake it with prayer until it falls 
into our hands. Do Thou help us to read Thy Word with the view to 
finding new promises and dwelling more meditatively on the old. There 



THIRD SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. 433 

are truths in Thy Word which we have never yet discovered; there 
are fruits there for our souls that we have never yet tasted. Lord 
God, do Thou bless the Word as it has been preached today, and the 
hands that have recorded this message, and may the message go forth, 
leading many people to their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to walk 
in His footsteps, and to live for the happiness and the good of their 
fellowmen, and to the glory of their Master, who taught us to pray: 
Our Father who art in heaven; Hallowed be Thy name; Thy 
kingdom come ; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven ; Give 
us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation; 
But deliver us from evil; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power,, 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



28 



FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. 

Do Not Err. 

James 1 :16-21. 

DO not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every per- 
fect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of 
lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. 
Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth, that we should be 
a kind of first fruits of His creatures. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, 
let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the 
wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Wherefore lay 
-apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meek- 
ness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth: 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved in Christ: 

There is a Latin phrase, dear friends, that has been 
translated into all the languages of the world: Errare 
humanum est, or rather. To err is human, and usually 
that phrase is quoted to show us that after all a little 
error does not amount to much because it is human. I 
wish to show you in the very beginning this evening in 
this discourse, that an error is an awful thing. There was 
a time when an angel in heaven for the first time rebelled 
against God. Among the angels it may have been called 
only an error, but that little error made the devil out of 
that angel, and that devil meant hell, and that hell meant 
eternal punishment for all who are not saved. That is 
the result of a little error, so-called. 

Let me show you another error. When Eve took the 
forbidden fruit, it looked like a very small thing. I sup- 
pose by a great majority of the votes in the world it would 
be declared just a little mistake, but that forbidden fruit 
led her away from God, led her to lose the image, and led 

434 



FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. 435 

her to lead astray her hus|)and, and she ruined the human 
race, planted the seed of death, dug every grave, started 
every sickness that has ever been in the world, made it 
necesary to have hospitals for the wounded and groaning, 
and has been the means of putting people on the path 
that leads to eternal damnation, all the result of one little 
error. 

Let me call your attention to another error. A little 
boy starts to a Sunday School in the country for the first 
time; as a stranger in that neighborhood he is honored 
by being elected treasurer of that Sunday School. He 
felt proud of the office and had a perfect right to feel so. 
It is always an honor to be elected treasurer of anything. 
The little boy went home that day with one hundred pen- 
nies in the treasury ; he felt as rich and as elevated as the 
treasurer of Kichland county, or treasurer of the State of 
Ohio, or of the United States. When the mother one day 
wanted some change, she said, "Let me have fifty cents of 
your pennies;" the little boy said "All right;'' the father 
said, "Mother, you are making a mistake; that is not 
John's one hundred cents; that is trust money; you have 
got absolutely no right to borrow that fifty cents ; the best 
thing you can do is to leave them where they are, or to 
give John half a dollar in exchange for the fifty pennies." 
But the mother thought she knew better than her husband 
did and so she borrowed the fifty pennies, with a view of 
paying them back. Little John went out that morning and 
said, "If mother can borrow fifty cents, I will borrow the 
other fifty and spend them." The year passed on and 
there were about |25.00 expected in that treasury, but 
when they came to settle up the account, little Jolin^ 
rather than to confess that he had no money — for he bor- 
rowed the one hundred cents every Sunday after that — 
simply ran away. The next thing we knew he was in a 
new neighborhood, and here again was trusted with a 
little more money, and he borrowed it with the view of 
paying it back, just like mother did. That same boy is 
in the Keformatory at Mansfield today; and who put 
him there? His own mother. You have absolutely no 
right to take one cent that belongs to a trust fund and not 



436 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

hold it for that trust. Only a little mistake, but it put 
that boy behind the walls of the Reformatory. I want 
you to understand, my friends, that an error is a terrible 
thing. The apostle James recognized this fact when he 
said, Do not err, my beloved brethren. Last Sunday I 
told you who the beloved brethren were ; today I admonish 
you in the name of the Holy Spirit that you be careful and 

DO NOT ERR. 

According to this text it is an error 

I. To be too slow. 
II. To be too swift. 

I. "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man 
be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath." It is 
an error to be too slow. Many a man has simply failed 
in his life because he is always just a little bit too slow. 
We are told in this Word tonight that a man should be 
swift to learn that evil does not lie in nature but in man 
himself. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from 
above and cometh down from the Father of lights. Notice 
well, dear friends, that James declares here that every good 
thing, no difference where it is found, every creature of 
God, comes from the heavenly Father, and that it is a 
mistake to think, as some people do, that evil lies in the 
very nature of all things. Human philosophy tells us, 
when it tries to get away from the true and living God, 
and away from the Bible, that evil lies right in the nature 
of things. If that were true, there would be just as much 
evil in the flower and the dew drop as there is in the devil, 
himself. No, my friends, do not err. Evil lies in Satan 
and man, and you cannot find it anywhere else. The 
good-hearted mother who rolls the barrel of whiskey out 
of the saloon and knocks the head in, imagines she is 
doing the right thing. There is more devil in the hand 
that holds the hatchet than there is in the barrel. It is 
simply an error. There are thousands of fools today 
called Christians who try to excuse man by throwing the 
responsibility on God, as if God made a mistake when He 



FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. 437 

gave us those things that can be turned into alcohol. You 
can go down here to any street in this city and fill any 
saloon with all the whiskey, and with all the beer, and 
with all the wine, and with all the stinking tobacco, all 
the poisonous cigarettes, and strychnine and arsenic, and 
all the poison you can find, and drive the men out, and 
lock the doors, and I can prove by a vote of all the intelli- 
gent men in the world that there is no evil in that build- 
ing. I shall repeat myself. Fill any building in the world 
with everything you can find outside of the devil and man, 
and I will show you a building that contains no evil. On the 
other hand, you show me a big building, totally vacant; 
roll out all the whiskey, all the beer, all the wine, all the 
tobacco and poison, and fill it up with men and women, 
and I will show you a building that is full of evil. Do not 
err. There is evil in the world, but, my friends, that evil 
is not in wheat, it is not in corn, it is not in medicine; it 
is in man. The apostle did not fail to tell them where to 
find the bad. Let no man say wiien he is tempted, I am 
tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted with evil, 
neither tempteth He any man; but every man is tempted 
when he is drawn aAvay of his own lust, and enticed; then 
when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin, and sin, 
when it is finished, bringeth forth death. There is no 
trouble to find where evil is. If you want to find it, lift 
up your hand and lay it upon your own breast and you 
are pretty close to it. Evil is in the heart of man. Why, 
you sa}^, I am a Christian. Granted that you are a Chris- 
tian. If you are a Christian, you are a Christian living 
in a sinful body, and while it is true that the spiritual man 
does not sin, it is just as true that the spiritual man lives 
in a carnal man, and when the spiritual man says, I want 
to do right, the carnal man says, I want to do wrong, and 
in the Christian there is a battle, while in the child of the 
devil there is no battle at all. The one is a Christian 
l)ecause he has the spiritual man in him, the other is a 
child of the devil because he is all devilish. Do not err. 
Do not try to shift your responsibility on to a barrel of 
whiskey. Do not try to shift your responsibility upon a 
little bottle of medicine. Stop this cry against the crea- 



438 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

til re inanimate, and cry out against devilish men and 
women, who do not try to do right and do not want to do 
right. If the people would all do as I do, and as hundreds 
of members of this church do, there would be no saloons. 
The saloons are in this city because not only devilish 
people want them, but because professed Christians want 
them. And whenever the men of God, so called, will take 
a stand against things that are wrong, and uphold things 
that are right, there will be a power in every community 
that today is not recognized. Do not err, beloved 
brethren. 

Again, I would have you not to be too slow, but be 
very swift to find out that God is unchangeable. The 
Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither 
shadow of turning. Some people seem to think that God 
was one kind of a God in the days of Abraham, and still 
another kind of a God in the days of Noah, and then 
became a diiferent kind of a God in the days of Israel, 
and then in the days of Christ became a little better, and 
now during these latter days is getting better still, as if 
God were changeable. Dear friends, God is not change- 
able. It is said here, In Him is no variableness neither 
shadow of turning. Men were saved in the beginning of 
the world exactly as they are saved today, and exactly as 
they will be saved on the last great day. Adam and Eve 
had the promise that they would be saved by the seed of 
the woman that should crush the serpent's head, and that 
promise was of Je»us Christ on Calvary. On the day that 
Jesus Christ was crucified, that man by His side was 
saved by the cross. Abraham looked forward to the cross ; 
the malefactor looked to his side for the cross, and you 
and I look back for the cross, and we are all saved by the 
unchangeable God. Hannah prayed for her son, Samuel, 
and God gave him to her. In the days of John the Baptist 
Zacharius and Elizabeth prayed for a son, and God gave 
them that wonderful prophet, yea, greater than a prophet, 
he who touched the Savior with his own hands, and today 
God will do the same thing. He is unchangeable. You 
look at yonder sun tomorrow and watch it for an hour, 
and you cannot see that it is moving. Just keep your 



FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. 439 

eye on yonder sun and it seems to stand perfectly still 
in the heavens; but go out into the field and walk up to 
that tall oak tree, sit down by the shadow, take your pen- 
cil and set it just at the edge of that shadow, at the end 
of it, you will see the shadow moving along, away from 
that pencil. The shadow moves, but, says this great 
apostle, do not err; you can set your pencil where you 
please on God's Word, and you will find that the shadow 
never moves. With whom i^ no variableness, neither 
shadow of turning. Do not err. The same God that de- 
manded a flood because the world was wicked, is the same 
God before whom you will stand on the great Judgment 
Day. Do not err and think that God has changed his 
mind. Why, you say, did God not sometimes make 
changes? Yes, God never changed His will, but He willed 
the change. Do you see the difference? You cannot find 
from the beginning of God's Word to the end that He 
ever changed His mind, that He ever changed His will, 
but He did will changes. If it were not for that we would 
always have sunshine; Ave would never have any rain. 
In the great plan of God's Providence, He has not only 
drawn back the black cloud, but the shining stars; He 
has not only given us the dark and lowering clouds, and 
thunder and lightning, but He has given us the cooling 
breeze and sweet flowers, and things that are beautiful. 
All these are coming, not because God changes His will, 
but because He wills changes. Do not err. The God of 
Abraham is our God tonight and will be our Judge on the 
last great day. 

Again, I would have you not to be too slow, but be 
swift to learn that a saved sinner is one of God's most 
wonderful creatures. Of His own will begat He us with 
the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits 
of His creatures. What beautiful world this must have 
l)een on the morning of creation! I would love to have 
seen that garden of Eden when Adam and Eve walked 
with God, and He walked with them. The world is so 
beautiful now that a man must be an ignoramus, and lost 
to all sense of beauty if his mind is not lifted heavenward 
as he comes in contact Avith nature. How anv man can 



440 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

waken at four o'clock in the morning and hear the little 
birds out in the trees praising God, and then lie there 
without praying, I do not understand. It seems to me 
that God has planted right in the mouth of the little bird 
the doxology which we sing : 

Praise God from whom all blessings flow ; 
Praise Him all creatures here below; 
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host ! 
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost ! 

How a man can travel over this beautiful earth, with 
the fine foliage on the trees and the beautiful grass and 
flowers, and the sweet perfumer}^ that comes from all 
the fields, a promise of the future harvest; how any man 
can look up into the skies at night and see those starry 
windows; how any man can enjoy the sunlight by day 
and its borrowed light by night from the beautiful moon ; 
how any man can look at this sin-cursed earth as it is 
with all its grandeur and beauty, and not be lifted heaven- 
ward, is a demonstration of the fact that he is an igno- 
ramus. What must this world have been before the curse 
was on it! What a beautiful world it must have been, 
that garden of Eden! Now, my friends, though man has 
fallen and has by nature become an enemy of God, though 
man has turned his face away from his Maker, and has 
gone down to destruction, James tells us that God can 
take that man, drunken sot that he is, low man that he is, 
cursed, lost man that he is, and devilish as he is, and with 
this Word of truth He can recreate him, regenerate him, 
hold him up and make out of him what is a veritable fruit 
of the garden of Eden. Wonderful demonstration of the 
power of God ! Of His own will begat He us with the word 
of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of His crea- 
tures. I believe the apostle James had in mind the fruit 
that was hanging on the trees in the garden of Eden before 
Adam sinned, and then stopped to think what God had 
done with him and with so many people. My friends, I tell 
you this evening, come and see. One of the best demon- 
strations of the power of God to me is the fact that in mj 
own ministry I can look into the faces of hundreds of men 



FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. 441 

and vvomen that were going to destruction, and the plain 
Word of God as taught in the Lutheran church, brought 
them back and made them like fruit hanging on the trees 
in the garden of Eden. Come and see! I want no 
stronger proof of the poAver of God's AVord than the fact 
that it takes a man and makes a new creature of him. 
What more do you want? Do not err and say Christian- 
ity is all a sham. *Do not stand on the side of the devil 
and argue against your own conscience, by trying to put 
yourself asleep with the thought that there are preachers 
that go wrong, and Sunday School teachers that go wrong, 
and professed Christians that go wrong. I say do not 
put your conscience to sleep with that kind of nonsense 
and sometimes veritable lies. There are men in Mansfield 
who will make the bold declaration that there are no good 
women any more, and that there are no good men any 
more. When a man tells me there are no good moral men 
I say he lies and he knows it. When a man tells me 
there are no good women, I say he lies and he knows 
it. The world is full of virtuous women and full of good 
men, and the only man that thinks everybody is bad, is 
a devilish man, himself, and he knows it. Do not 
err, beloved brethren. Suppose that I, myself, should go 
wrong and go to the devil, Avhat good will that do you 
when I gnash my teeth at you in hell and you gnash yours 
at me? What comfort is that to a lost man to know that 
another soul is lost? Do not err, beloved brethren. There 
is a God in heaven before whom jon and I must stand, 
and He has not changed as much as the shadow of the 
tree in the noon liour. 

Do not be too sIoav, dear hearers, but be swift to hear 
God's Word. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, be swift 
to hear. Some people are very slow to hear. I suppose 
some of you men were sleeping this morning when you 
ought to have been in God's house. You are vei^y slow 
to hear God's message. Who knows but that God pre- 
pared a special message for you, and you were not here 
to hear it, nor anywhere else. What right have you got 
to transgress the very day that God set apart for you to 
hear His message? Oh, how many people there are who 



442 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

could be in the Sunday school class, but they are too slow ! 
HoAv many people there are that could hear the sermon 
every Sunday, but they are too slow! How many people 
there are that are very glad they are in a business that 
gives them an excuse not to hear God's Word; and there 
is a great deal of business done on Sunday that had better 
not be done. These Italian stands ought to be closed up 
on Sunday, and a good deal of other business ought to be 
closed on Sunday. I do not believe that any man under 
heaven ever did prosper because he disobeyed God's Holy 
law^ Kemember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. The^^ 
used to think they could never get along without an open 
barber shop on Sunday. They are all closed now and 
men are shaved just as well as they were then. They used 
to think that the grocery had to be open until ten o'clock 
on Sunday morning. They are closed now and we have 
just as much to eat Sundays as we did before. The time 
will come when the drug stores will be closed on Sunday, 
and there are people who think if they were closed all 
the time, we would not have so many funerals. Now I 
do not say that it may never be necessary to get into 
some kinds of business on Sunday sometimes, but there 
is always a right way of doing it. I do want to say here 
tonight that the man that does not hear God's Word 
often on Sunday and in his own home, is making an eter- 
nal mistake. A poor shepherd in France, who had all 
that he could possibly do, seemingly, to keep his poor 
family from starving, had no Bible. The prayer of his 
life was, Oh, that I could just get hold of God's Word! 
and by practicing strict economy, he finally had enough 
money saved to buy an old, second-hand Bible; then he 
took it home and felt rich, and his family was rich, and 
they read in that Word every day together, and sang a 
hymn of praise, and one day when he was reading the last 
line on the right-hand page, and turned the leaf, there 
seemed to be no connection whatever between the two 
sentences. He leafed back and forth a few times, and said, 
Surely there is a leaf lost, and then accidentally it was 
observed by one of the family that the two leaves were 
sticking together. He took his knife from the side of his 



FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. 443 

plate, ran it between the two leaves, and carefully opened 
them, and lo, and behold, he found a hundred dollars in 
money lying betwee^n those two leaves. Then he felt that 
possibly he would be considered a thief if he would tell 
the world that he found a hundred dollars in an old book, 
but he picked up a little note upon which he read: "This 
Bible I purchased long ago, Avhen I was poor; God blessed 
me and I got rich, but my heirs are not worthy of what I 
have. I now seal these hundred dollars in this Bible, and 
whoever gets it and reads this Book shall find them and 
they shall be his." Then this poor shepherd knelt down 
with his family and thanked God that by reading the 
Word he not only found flOO in money between the pages, 
but found something worth more than a hundred dollars 
on every page of that great Book. It was the beginning 
of his financial blessing, and it was to his soul a spiritual 
blessing, even to rob his family of bread to buy the old 
Bible. Now, dear friends, do you realize tonight that 
flOO might be in your Bibles for a long time before you 
would find them? Do you realize as you are sitting before 
me tonight that Ave very often find fault with the Roman 
Catholics because they read the Bible so little, and yet 
they are taught not to read the Bible in their homes, 
because of the fact that they cannot interpret it as the 
priests can ; Avhile Protestants are urged to read the Bible, 
and I am not saying too much when I say that the average 
Roman Catholic in this civilized land knows as much 
about his Bible as the aA^erage Protestant, and it is a 
shame that we are letting the old Word of God lie at 
home Av^eek after week and never look inside of it. It is 
a shame that professed Christians have no family wor- 
ship. Oh, shame on you ! How God can bless that home, 
I do not understand. Then open the Word of God. Read 
a chapter every morning. Sing a song of praise to your 
heavenly Father. Start out in your business with a 
prayer to God, and I want to tell voti that life will be 
something new, and a glorious home you will have, and 
your influence in your community Avill mean something. 
God forbid that some people should follow in the footsteps 



444 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

of some members of some churches. Let us be very careful 
not to err. 

II. We are not only to avoid the error of being too 
slow, but just as much so in being too fast. Wherefore, 
my beloved brethren, let e^ ery man be swift to hear, slow 
to speak. Do not be too swift with your tongue. Did it 
ever occur to you, my friends, that God gave you two 
ears to hear, and only one tongue to speak? Did it ever 
occur to you that when a certain building in a city is 
surrounded by a high wall, and Avith two sets of gates, 
that that means silence in that house? Did it ever occur 
to you that when God made you. He gave you two ears 
to listen and only one tongue to speak, and put around 
that tongue two gates called lips, and around that tongue 
a double fence of ivory teeth, that you might be careful 
not to speak too much? Do you know that this Word of 
God tells you that you must give an account for every 
idle word? If there is one verse more than another in 
the Bible that condemns me, it is that one. Oh, what an 
account I will have to give on the Judgment Day! And 
yet how much foolish talk there is, and not only talk, but 
talk against the Word of God. James has in mind the 
average layman who will rebel against the message that 
he hears. It may be that you are in just that mood right 
now, that you would like to say something back against 
what you have heard tonight, and yet in your own con- 
science and soul you know that every word I have said 
is true. Now be careful, and do not talk back too soon. Go 
home and think. Go home and pray. Go home and medi- 
tate and keep that fence closed a day or two. Shut up 
the gates. Listen. Because just as sure as you talk too 
soon you will make a fool of yourself. Be swift, there- 
fore, on the one hand, and sIoav on the other. 

Be careful not to err in another respect. That is, 
do not be swift to get angry. Slow to wrath. I do not 
know of anything that will make a fool of a man any 
quicker than when he lets his temper run away with him. 
A temper is a blessed thing. An engine may be ever so 
perfect, it never will run unless there is some fire and 
some steam to make it go, and a man that has no temper 



FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. 445 

is just a poor machine that is not Avorth anything; but 
when he has a temper he ought to have a governor, a 
controlling power; he ought to be able to say, I will hold 
my tongue until I can keep cool. It was a rule of Caesar 
to always count twenty before he said a word if he felt 
angry. It was a rule of a great theologian to pray the 
Lord's prayer every time he felt that he was getting 
angry. It was the rule of a great philosopher to say the 
alphabet forward and backward before he said a word 
when he felt angry. Whatever rule you may adopt, do 
not allow yourself to plunge into anger and do in a mo- 
ment what years of regret can never undo. Do not err. 
Do not think it is manly to grow angry. There are 
plenty of animals all around us that can get angry and 
bite and kick, but there is nothing manly about them, 
and nothing manly about any man who allows his tem- 
per to swell, and then begins to rave and appear more 
like a brute than a man. Be slow to get angry. 

Again, a man must not be too swift to plunge into 
things that are filthy. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness. 
There are so many filthy things around us; so many 
filthy conversations; so many filthy actions. Oh, do not 
plunge into things that are not clean. It seems to me 
there is one thing that every Christian ought to lay down 
as the principle of his life, and that is if the conversa- 
tion is not clean, walk away from it. If the habit you 
have got is not clean, then walk away from it. xls I 
walked into the jail the other morning, in order to take 
a young man out of there, a young man of about twenty- 
five years came to the door and spit right over on my 
shirt bosom, and said ''Excuse me!'' Twenty years ago 
I would have excused him in a hurry, but I did think, 
Avith all the calmness that I haA^e uoav, that the man ought 
to be clean. What right has a man got to carry around 
in his mouth a filthy thing like that, that must make 
him excuse himself for spitting? Why not keep clean? 
Why slop all over your own shirt bosom or anybody's 
else? Why form a habit that Avould not be allowed in 
decent society? Why smell like a stinking pool? Keep 



446 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

clean. The apostle says, be careful not to plunge into 
filthiness. Lay apart all filthiness. 

Not only all filthiness, but he says be swift not to 
plunge into meanness. "Wherefore lay apart all filthi- 
ness and superfluity of naughtiness." We say of the 
child when it gets to be angry, you naughty child, and 
yet there are things done by men that cannot be termed 
anything but low and mean. Oh, man, how can you, 
having a Christian wife at home, and dear little children 
that look into your face to lead them rightly, how can 
you be aw^ay from home every evening of the week and 
be where you would not take your family with you, and 
spend your money there and let your children starve? 
Oh, you mean, filthy scoundrel, how can you go on and 
live that way? Do not err. Stop plunging into these 
mean things. Come out and be a man and stand up for 
your family and for your children. If a dog were 
found out in the street cursing and swearing, every gun 
would be leveled at him. Shoot him down! He is pos- 
sessed of the devil! And yet the very men who hold the 
weapons in their hands will stand on the street and curse 
and swear and damn, and think it is manly. Oh, the 
meanness of the human heart when it is not given to the 
Lord! The apostle tells us here to be swift, to stay out 
of that filthiness, and out of that naughtiness, and receive 
with meekness the engrafted Word, which is able to save 
your souls. 

The Church of old called this Sunday Cantata — 
the Latin term for singing, and the reason they called it 
that was that in the old church on the fourth Sunday 
after Easter they always began by singing the 98th 
Psalm: O sing unto the Lord a new song; for He hath 
done marvelous things : His right hand and His holy 
arm, hath gotten Him the victory! I say from the time 
the church sang this 98th Psalm until today, you will 
find in your hymnbook that this Sunday is called Can- 
tata — Sing unto the Lord a new song — and it does 
seem to me that this church, if any church on earth, 
ought to sing. Do you realize, as a member of the First 
Lutheran Church, how you have been blessed from the 



FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. 447 

time that Father Ruth came here to preach the Gospel 
until the present day? Do you stop to realize that in 
seventy long years you have only had about nine pastors^ 
and that of all those that have been here, you have not 
had one who has not been faithful unto death? Not 
one has disgraced you. You cannot say that of all 
churches that have been in existence seventy years. Do- 
you appreciate the fact that for seventy long years God's 
eternal truth which you have heard tonight has beett 
sounding in the hearts of jour fathers, and of your moth- 
ers, and into the hearts of your children, and that up to 
your last pastor you have had as faithful jiastors as any 
church could have? Do you realize tonight that you 
have as faithful a superintendent as any church in the 
State of Ohio? Do you realize tonight that you have 
sixty faithful teachers in this Sunday school who are 
working hand in hand to educate your children on the 
narrow way? Do you realize tonight that you have a 
church council, for two and a half years at least, and 
possibly throughout many years of the past, that has 
never had one unkind word but the Spirit of God in our 
midst? Do you realize that in our teachers' meetings 
we have a wonderful blessing from the Spirit of God on 
high? Do you realize that we have a Young Peoples' 
Society in which every heart and every hand is in harmony 
with the one great purpose of giving glory to God? Now, 
my dear friends, if we do not sing here in a church like- 
this, where shall they sing? If hearing the mighty Word 
of God as plain as you have heard it tonight, as you 
always hear it, isn't enough to move you to buy a little 
hymn-book for one dollar and ten cents to praise God, 
then pray tell me, what will move you? Friends, I am 
in earnest about the singing in this church. If the old 
shepherd of Israel could pen a Psalm of praise like the 
98th Psalm; if the church of old could not begin worship 
without everybody singing that Psalm, in these days of 
music, in these days of cheap books, why should any man 
on earth call himself a Christian and sit down like a 
block and never open his mouth to sing a song of praise 
to God? Some one says. What is the difference whether 



448 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

we sing or not? The difference is simply thiSj that if 
jou have your heart filled with the seed that is in this 
Word, you will be filled with prayer, and if you are filled 
with prayer you will want to pray along with the Church 
of God, whether you have a voice to sing or not. You 
say that some cannot sing. What does singing mean? 
Singing means to give praise to God. Can't you do that? 
If I were a woman and hadn't enough money to buy a 
hymn-book, I would sell those old umbrellas called hats 
and get one. If I were a man and could not afford to 
buy a hymn-book, I would go out and say to the world. 
Give me fl.lO, I want to buy a hymn-book. There is a 
good deal said about poverty, but I see people that do 
not give one cent to the First Lutheran Church sit down 
there at Kaler's and eat ice cream every week. I 
see these things and know you do not need them; I do 
not say you should not have them, but do your duty to 
God first. I urge upon you to make not only this Sun- 
day a cantata, but to make your life a cantata. In the 
days of the Reformation, Luther, it is said by Carlisle, 
sang the truth into Germany. And that means that our 
Sunday school books should have hymns that will not 
move the children at once to begin to move their feet as 
if to dance, but we ought to have hymn-books with the 
old glorious songs that mean worship, and lead people 
to a truer idea of what it means to sing praise to God. 
It does mean that if any church on earth ought to be a 
singing church, it is the First Lutheran Church of Mans- 
field. May God bless these words tonight and stir us 
up to a better praise to Him, and to be much swifter to do 
Tight and much slower to do wrong. 

PRAYER. 

O Father in heaven, we ask Thy divine blessing tonight to rest 
upon the message of the hour. We pray Thee, O God, that Thou wilt 
take these words, which are words from Thy great Word, and teach 
us to be careful not to err. A little mistake on the part of an angel 
meant a devil ; a little mistake on the part of a woman meant the ruined 
world; a little mistake in many of our lives has meant many a sorrow 
and many a tear, and we pray Thee that Thou wilt help us tonight to 
watch the fountain lest the stream be filthy, and therefore we cry out 



FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. 449 

to create in us clean hearts, O God, and renew right spirits within us. 
We ask Thee, heavenly Father, that Thou wilt teach us all to teach 
Thy Word, to be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath, that we 
may give an account of every word. Hear this our prayer and help 
us now to utter words that we never need to give an account of be- 
cause they are the words of our Savior, and the words of the sweetest 
prayer ever offered by man to God : 

Our Father who art in heaven ; Hallowed be Thy name ; Thy 
kingdom come ; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven ; Give 
us this day. our daily bread ; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation; 
But deliver us from evil; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. 

Three Kinds of Hearers and Two Kinds of Religion. 

James 1 :22-27. 

BUT be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving 
your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the Word, and 
not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face 
in a glass : For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straight- 
way forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into 
the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a for- 
getful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his 
deed. If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not 
his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. 
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this. To visit 
the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself un- 
spotted from the world. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved in Christ: 

There are many sermons in this text instead of one, 
and my object shall be not to see how much I can say, but 
how little. There are many kinds of faith in the world, 
but there are only two kinds of religion, and it is to these 
three kinds of hearers and two kinds of religion that I 
this morning call your attention. May the Holy Spirit 
api3ly this message deeply to the hearts of all of us, to 
lead us into the true doctrinal and the practical part of 
true Christianity. We find then in this text 

THREE KINDS OF HEARERS AND TWO KINDS OF RELIGION. 

I. What are these three kinds of hearers? 
1. There are some men who never hear God's Word. 
There are people in this world who never heard the one 

450 



FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. 451 

Book of God at all. There are two books in which we can 
read the wonderful characteristics of our God. The one 
is the book of nature, and the other is the Book of Revela- 
tion. Every man on earth has the book of nature lying 
before him. Every man can see its open pages this 
morning as they lie open before us on the hills and in the 
valleys. Every man at night can look up and see the 
golden alphabet of the stars of the universe ; but with all 
of this great book before us, there are people who have 
never heard of God's Word. 

Think of the millions of heathen this morning 
that never heard a word out of the Bible! Think of the 
poor souls groveling in darkness that never heard of the 
sweet song of the cross of Christ ! that never heard of the 
Prince of Peace ! Think of the millions that never heard 
of the one way to heaven, that never knew of such a thing 
as the Holy Ghost, that never knew of such a thing as a 
Sunday School, who never have heard how poor sinners, 
lost and condemned, can be saved. Oh, the poor hearers 
who never heard God's Word! And yet God put these 
ears in our heads for the very purpose that we might hear, 
and said : He that hath ears to hear, let him hear — not 
the song of the birds, not the music of the air — but first 
of all, the Word of God. 

There are some then who never hear God's Word; 
there are others who do not want to hear it, those that 
have the opportunity. We are told in John 3 of some 
people who cannot bear the light : And this is the con- 
demnation, that light is come into this world, and men 
loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were 
evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, 
neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be re- 
proved. It may be that I have some one sitting before me 
that does not love to go to church, that does not reallv love 
to hear God's Word. Why? Pray tell me why do you not 
love to hear God's Word? I will tell you why. There is 
a something about your life that you would prefer to keep 
in the dark instead of letting the light of God's Word 
shine on it. What a blessing it is you are here this morn- 
ing, and may the Word of God shine in on your souls this 



452 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

morning ever hereafter to make you love to liear it, for 
just as sure as a man does not want to hear God's Word 
any more there is something wrong about his heart ; some- 
thing wrong about his life; something wrong about him 
that he wants to keep in the dark and feels better when his 
conscience is not stirred up. 

AVe have, therefore, not only those who do not want 
to hear God's Word, but we have got some also who have 
committed the sin against the Holy Ghost and never want 
to hear it. The Lord Jesus Christ told us that every sin 
could be forgiven except the sin against the Holy Ghost. 
The author of the letter to the Hebrews calls attention to 
that sin in Heb. 6 :4-6 : For it is impossible for those who 
were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly 
gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and 
have tasted the good Word of God, and the powers of the 
world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again 
unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the 
Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame. Dear 
friends, the Jews committed the awful crime of nailing 
Christ to the cross, witb the assistance of the Komans, 
but I want to say that from the day they nailed Him to 
the cross, they never said. We will crucify Him again; 
but the man that heard God's Word, and has tasted sal- 
vation, and knows the whole truth, has been enlightened, 
born again, has seen and received everything that God 
could give him, when that man turns away from God, he 
not only has crucified Christ, but has taken Him off of 
the cross, put Him in the grave, and wlien He arose from 
the dead caught Him the second time and nailed Him to 
the cross again. The man that has committed the sin 
against the Holy Ghost has crucified the crucified Lord. 
Did you ever think of that before? He has not only driven 
the nails through the hands and through the feet of Jesus 
Christ, and thrust the spear into His breast, but after 
those hands and feet were healed, he comes and says, I 
would like to drive those nails through again. And when 
a man reaches that point in his spiritual (condemnation, he 
simply says, I do not want to hear God's Word any more, 
and never will. Therefore the man that thinks he has 



FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. 458 

committed the sin against the Holy Ghost has not done it. 
The man that worries because he is afraid he has com- 
mitted this sin, has not done it. The man that has com- 
mitted the sin against the Holy Ghost never worries any 
more about it; he is as hard hearted as the fires of hell 
can harden his heart, and he simply will never hear God's 
Word again. 

2. There are some who never hear God's Word; 
then there are some that never do anything more than 
to hear God's Word. They hear it and that is all. They 
are Church-goers. There are some people that would not 
miss divine services for anything; you Avill find them in 
their pew every Sunday morning; to them it would be 
a terrible crime not to go to church, but if you ask them 
what they really heard two hours afterwards they would 
not know a thing ; if you would ask them w^hat they have 
learned in the last ten years, they would have to say noth- 
ing ; if you would ask them what the text was, they would 
have to say, I don't know ; if you were to ask them. What 
sj)ecial benefit did you get out of the sermon today? they 
would have to reply. Nothing. They are hearers of the 
Word but not doers; not learners. They simply go to 
church; as I said a moment ago, they would not miss 
divine services for anything, but if on Monday they could 
make »?10.00 by telling a lie they wouldn't miss lying for 
anything; if they could rob some man during the week, 
they would not miss it for anything ; if they could go and 
get drunk on Monday night they would not miss it for 
anything. How many hearers there are that never do 
anything more than just hear! They never try to learn 
anj^hing, never try to commit a single promise. There 
isn't a chapter in the Bible that isn't full of the wonderful 
promises of God, and it is supposed we are to take hold 
of these promises one after the other, and grow in grace, 
and learn something; but Oh, how many there are who 
never pray ! They hear, and do nothing more. 

3. Then there are some again who hear and do God's 
Word. Their daily prayer is, O God, I want more food 
for my soul ! Their daily prayer is, God, prepare me that 
when Sunday comes I may be found in God's house; that 



454 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

I may be found in my Sunday School class, that I may 
appropriate one truth after the other, and that I may learn 
Thy holy will, and, having learned it, that I may go and 
do according to it. They pray that they may hear God's 
Word; they hear God's Word that they may learn it; 
they learn it that they may believe it; they believe that 
they may live, and they live that they may labor. That is 
the kind of Christians that James speaks of: "But be ye 
doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your 
own selves." 

W^hy should we hear God's Word if we do not want 
to learn it, and why should we learn it if we do not want 
to believe it, and why should we believe it if we do not 
want to live a better life, and if we want to live a better 
life, why should we not exercise the knowledge that we 
have? Pray tell me, what kind of a hearer are you this 
morning? Are you one who possibly wishes you had not 
come? Are you one who, when you do hear God's Word 
let it go into one ear and out of the other, or one who in- 
tends to hear the Word of God for the purpose of profiting 
by it, that joii may go and do something today yet, and 
tomorrow, and all the days of your life for the great and 
merciful God who laid down His life for you? 

II. These are the three kinds of hearers. Let me call 
your attention a few moments to the two kinds of religion. 
There are pooi^ religions, and there are i)ure religions. 

1. I call your attention to the poor kind. The poor 
kind is hypocritical. "But be ye doers of the Word, and 
not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any 
be a hearer of the Word, and not a doer, he is like unto a 
man beholding his natural face in a glass; for he be- 
holdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway for- 
getteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh 
into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, 
he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, 
this man shall be blessed in his deed. If any man among 
you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but 
deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain." If 
his religion is vain it is a poor religion. And why is it 



FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. 455 

poor? It is poor because it is liypocritical; because it is 
the ox kind, and because it is deceptive. 

It is hypocritical. The man who deceives himself, 
and tries to go on and let on as though he heard God's 
Word and never wants to do anything, is only trying to 
deceive the people, and, being a deceiver, is a hypocrite; 
and if a hypocrite, then you will find that he has got 
religion but very little Christianity. Mark well the dif- 
ference between religion and Christianity. The average 
man seems to think that religion and Christianity are one 
and the same thing. The devil is just as religious as God 
is. Do not forget that. Do not forget that every heathen 
nation on earth is religious. Do not forget that the fol- 
lowers of Mohammed, who bow nine times towards 
Mecca are religious. Do not forget that mothers who will 
throw their babies into the Ganges river are religious. Do 
not forget that the Indians, before they heard the Gospel, 
were religious ; that the lowest tribes on earth are just as 
religious as any Christian people, but the man who has got 
the true religion has got something more than simply 
religion; he has got Christ and Him crucified, and lives 
for Jesus only, and therefore has Christianity. No 
wonder that John Arndt wrote that popular book. True 
Christianity; you ought to buy it if you have not got it; 
you ought to learn the difference between the shallow 
thing some people call religion, and the genuine Christi- 
anity, which means to hold fast to Jesus, the only Way, 
the Truth and the Life, who said that no man cometh to 
the Father but by Him. The man that I pity is the man 
who has been religious all his life, and at last will be 
damned and carry his religion to hell Avith him. If there 
is any man on earth Avhom Ave should loA^e and try to 
emulate, it is the man who has found the truth and walks 
in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, and tells us to follow Him 
who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. It is a poor 
religion if it simply means religion and no Christianity. 

It is also a poor religion if it means Bibles but not 
God's Word. The hypocritical religion has Bibles plenty. 
Do not imagine that every man who walks on the street 
with a Bible under his arm has got Christianity. You 



456 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

can hire men to carry Bibles by the dozen. It is one 
thing to haye the Bible under the arm, and another 
thing to haye it in the heart. It is one thing to have God's 
\^^ord in the home, and another thing to haye God's Word 
in the mind and in the heart. And do you know if your 
Bible is lying at home on the table from one end of the 
year to the other, and you neyer read it in family worship 
nor study that Word, that you are playing hypocrite? If 
I did not want to read the Word of God I would take 
that Bible out of the house. I would urge upon you all 
this morning to stir up conscience. I would urge upon 
you all not simply to sit here and say, I was at the First 
Lutheran Church this morning. Make up your minds 
that you are going home from the First Lutheran Church 
this morning with the intention of doing one of two things 
with that Book: either read it and study it, and get the 
mind of the Holy Spirit to show you what the Bible is ; or, 
if not to do that, then say to your wife, I am not going to 
be a hypocrite another moment, haying people thinking I 
am a Christian when I am not ; having people say that I 
ioye the Book when I do not. Make a fire with your Bible, 
cook your dinner to-day with your Bible, or read it; do 
not be a hypocrite another hour. There is a hypocritical 
religion that means Bibles plenty; Word of God not at 
all. God haye mercy upon the poor souls who are empty 
of God's Word. 

It is hypocritical to haye pray-ers but no prayers. 
There are some people that go through the form of prayer 
without books as well as Avith books and neyer pray at all. 
There has been a good deal said against form, but I want 
it understood that no prayer was eyer offered by man 
without form. Man cannot speak or sing without form; 
cannot read the Bible without form; cannot learn the 
alphabet Ayithout form. The fact is that the intelligence 
of the world has been handed down to us through form. 
Stop crying out against the wrong thing. It is not the 
form we want to cry out against. The thing we are op- 
posed to is form, Ayithout anything in it. Some people 
pray from the book, and they put their prayers in that 
form, and bring their prayers to heayen; and some pray 



FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. 457 

without books, and their prayers go to heaven in that form ; 
and some people pray with the book and have no prayer ; 
and some people pray without the book and have no 
prayer. There are more pray-ers in the world than 
prayers; and the man that prays and does not think of 
God, does not want to lead the better life, does not pray 
for humanity, is a pray-er but does not offer a prayer, 
and with all his words that sound like prayer, he is a 
hypocrite. 

Let me call your attention to another kind of poor 
religion — that is the ox kind. I give it that name be- 
cause I cannot find any other word to express it. James 
says : If any man among you seem to be religious, and 
bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, 
this man's religion is vain. When a man's tongue is not 
bridled he comes just as near being an ox as any one I 
know of. When you drive a horse you put a bridle into 
his mouth, but when you drive an ox you just throw the 
yoke on him, and when he gets stubborn he is the worst 
thing to run away; there is nothing to hold him by; and 
some people have just that kind of an ox religion because 
they never want to learn anything, they want to run wild, 
they want to be free, they want to do just as they please; 
they want to have a little yoke put on their necks, but 
nothing in their mouths; they want to go to church if 
there is no other place, but are just as willing to run wild 
as to be children of God. Whenever a religion becomes ox 
religion, that does not want to be guided by the Holy 
Spirit, it is deceptive. When a man does not know what 
he is, he has a very poor religion. And how many people 
there are to-day who absolutely do not know what they 
believe concerning anything. They have no faith in the 
Word of God itself as the inspired Bible; they have no 
faith with regard to the gift of the Holy Spirit; they 
have no faith with regard to the bringing up of children ; 
they have no faith with regard to baptism ; they have no 
settled faith with regard to the Lord's Supper; they do 
not know whether Luther or Calvin was right; they do 
not know whether Jesus meant all He said or not; they 
are like a little ship upon the sea, when the waves drive it 



458 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

to and fro, they have no anchor, no rudder; they are all 
right as long as it is calm ; but the first storm that comes 
up, you will find them no more. What a poor, poor re- 
ligion! Oh, how deceptive! Like the branches upon the 
trees that have no sap, no life; they are willing to stay 
there until the storms come, and then they break off and 
fall to the ground. The man that has the Word of God in 
his heart as he ought to have, stands by the truth if the 
heavens fall. The man that has a poor religion will stay, 
providing he likes the preacher; he will stay providing 
nothing comes in his way at all, but, like the old dead 
branch, the first little wind that blows he goes down and 
that is the end of him. Pity the man with the poor 
religion! 

2. May God help us all to get the pure religion. 
"Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father 
is this. To visit the fatherless and widows in their af- 
fliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. 
Pure religion is very doctrinal. It cannot be otherwise. 
"But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and 
continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a 
doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed." 
Who will be blessed? The man that knows the perfect 
law of liberty; the man that does not forget what he 
hears. How can a man know the perfect law of liberty? 
Surely not unless he studies the ten commandments and 
finds out his sins ; then he will be driven to Jesus Christ, 
and finding Jesus Christ as the Eedeemer that taketh 
away the sins of the world, he holds fast to Him and goes 
to Him in prayer, realizing that Jesus has set him free — 
free of his sins by the mercy of Christ he will now love the 
life of holy communion with the heavenly Father; loving 
this life he forgets not every day that he is baptized in 
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost, and as Jesus rose from the grave so he must arise 
in newness of life, remembering that because he is bap- 
tized he is an adopted child, he now shall be nourished 
in the Holy Supper; he believes this Word as Jesus has 
recorded it; and, hearing this Word, he holds fast to it, 
and knows himself and his God. 



FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. 459 

Not until you know the true and living God and 
Him only as your heavenly Father, and as the Son, and 
as the Holy Spirit, not until you know yourself through 
His holy law and through His Gospel have you got the 
perfect liberty of God, — then you are doctrinal ; then 
you have pure religion. 

And, having this pure religion, knowing yourself and 
knowing your God, and how you can be reconciled to Him 
through Jesus Christ, then your religion becomes prac- 
tical. Dr. Luther at one time when dwelling largely upon 
the great doctrine of justification by faith, called this 
epistle of James the epistle of straw; but in after years 
when he entered the practical side of life more fully, he 
saw what Paul was on the one hand as to doctrine, James 
was on the other side as to practical life, and he saw 
after all that the Holy Spirit was the author of James 
as well as the author of Komans. Pure religion does not 
consist simply in sitting down and saying, I believe this 
and that. Pure religion means to put a bridle in the 
mouth, and close up the lips, and go out and do some- 
thing for the people who need help. Pure religion and un- 
defiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the 
fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep 
himself unspotted from the world. These dear members 
of ours who are taking care of these orphans are doing 
God's Word. That is pure religion. These dear friends 
who are going around and hunting up children whose 
fathers and mothers are no more living, are exercising 
pure religion. If your wife died, and you were lying on 
your death bed, and your little children were standing 
around the bed, you would begin to ask, what is pure re- 
ligion? and if some good neighbor would come around and 
say. Just sleep in Christ, I will take care of your children, 
that would mean a good deal more to you in that hour than 
for him to say, I believe in God, the Father, Son and Holy 
Ghost. Not that the one does not follow the other, but 
when a man does believe in God, it is his duty to put that 
faith into practice, and his object in life ought to be to 
keep his eyes open and hunt for something to do for his 
fellow men. It is one thing to sit at home and let some 



460 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

poor orphan come and rap at your door, and then you say, 
I have been your kind friend; and it is another thing to 
walk ten miles and rap at the door and say, If there are 
orphans here I want to help them. The first is treating 
the orphan like a tramp, and the second is to become an 
angel messenger of God, to treat the orphan as God's dear 
child. There was a farmer of Saxony at one time known 
to be one of the greatest of Bible students among the 
laymen in that great country. He was called before the 
king one day and in order to test his knowledge of the 
Bible, some one said to the old farmer: How much cloth 
would it take to make a suit for God, for we are told by 
the prophet that He fills heaven and earth. Oh, said the 
old farmer, about ten yards Avould make Him a good 
suit. Why, how do you explain that? Why, he says, here 
is an orphan, and I think ten yards of cloth would make 
him a good suit of clothing with plenty of goods to spare, 
and God said. What ye have done unto one of these, you 
have done unto Me. It isn't hard to make a suit of clothes 
for God. 

Pure religion means more than to simply sit around 
and say we believe in the Augsburg Confession, in Lu- 
ther's catechism, and in the inspired Word of God. If 
you sit at home and say nothing but that, and do nothing, 
what is your religion Avorth? We ought to go out and 
look after those that need our help. How many boys are 
leaving home and coming to Mansfield, away from fatlier, 
away from mother ; how many girls are leaving their poor 
homes and coming to our city in order to fight the battles 
of life, and those boys and girls have immortal souls that 
are longing to talk about the things that pertain to their 
souls, and so in their despair, and homesickness, and 
hardly knowing what to do next, they begin to say a word 
about Christ to some so-called Christian, and the so-called 
Christian coughs and walks away and does not say a word, 
and those young people sink in despair and start out on 
paths that lead to destruction. It does seem there is so 
little practical, genuine religion among people, so little 
of the real, practical, visible Christianity. Many a young 
man to-dav would be in heaven instead of hell if onlv some 



FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. 461 

Christian would* have said the right word at the right 
time to him. 

Practical religion means to keep ourselves unspotted 
from the world. How often you have heard your present 
as well as your former pastors telling you of the im- 
portance of separating yourselves from the ungodly world ; 
hut what is the result? Not only is it a fact that some 
people have the spots of the world on them, but the real 
truth of it is that they have the garment of the world 
on them, with only a little spot of Christianity here and 
there. When you have your wliite garment on you 
positively know you can not roll in the mud puddles and 
keep clean; joii know you have to stay away from every- 
thing that is filthy and dirty. Pray tell me, how can you 
have a pure religion on Sunday and throughout the week 
not care one whit where you go or with whom you as- 
sociate, what time you get home at night, rolling around 
in the filth of the world, and then wonder why you are 
not growing in grace? There are only two religions. It 
is the religion of the devil or the religion of Christ. It 
is the religion of the world, or the religion of heaven. It 
is pure and undefiled, or it is black as hell. Unspotted 
from the world? Do you remember that beautiful epis- 
tle of Paul to the Ephesians, where he says that the 
Church of God is without spot or wrinkle? How you 
mothers love to have a white table-cloth spread on your 
table, without a wrinkle in it, and without a spot, a pic- 
ture of what your character ought to be. And so I say 
to you all today, live such a life that you are unspotted 
from the world. This Sunday the old church called 
"Eogate," the Latin word for prayer. In the Gospel 
lesson you will remember Jesus said. Whatsoever ye shall 
ask in My name, the Father will give it to you. Let us 
then conclude with prayer. Let us ask God to help us 
today that we may be the right kind of hearers, and the 
right kind of doers of God's eternal Word. This we ask 
in Jesus name. Amen. 

PRAYER. 

O God, our heavenly Father, we ask Thy rich and divine blessing 
to rest upon the message of the hour. We pray Thee, O Father in 



462 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

heaven, th'at Thou wilt help us this day to resolve to make the right 
use of Thy Word, to hear it whenever we can; to hear it that we 
may believe it; believe it that we may pray it; pray it that we may 
live it, and live it in such a way that we will be unspotted from the 
world. All these favors we ask in the name of the blessed Jesus, who 
taught us to pray: 

Our Father who art in heaven; Hallowed be Thy name; Thy 
kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven; Give 
us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation; 
But deliver us from evil; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power^ 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



SUNDAY AFTER ASCENSION. 

What Would You Do Today if You Knew That Tomorrow 
You Would Be in Eternity? 

I Peter 4 :7-ll. 

BUT the end of all things is at hand : be ye therefore sober and 
watch unto prayer. And above all things have fervent charity 
among yourselves : for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. 
Use hospitality one to another without grudging. As every man hath 
received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good 
stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him 
speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister let him do it as of 
the ability which God giveth : that God in all things may be glorified 
through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and 
ever. Amen. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth: 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved in Christ : 

We have just said, using Christ's own words, that 
the Word of God is true. Is is true? Did not Peter 
say nearly two thousand years ago. But the end of all 
things is at hand? Wasn't Peter mistaken? Did not 
Peter suppose that in a year or two the world would 
eome to an end, and if so, was he not mistaken when 
he said, The end of all things is at hand? Dear friends, 
it is not in my power to say exactly what Peter thought, 
but it is in my calling to tell you that Peter made no 
mistake when as an inspired apostle he said at that 
time that the end of all things is at hand. You must 
remember that the Apostle Peter is not talking now as 
a man in relation to man, but he is talking as a man 
giving forth the voice of the eternal God. An hour is 
longer for an insect that lives a day than a year is for a 

463 



464 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

man that lives to be thirty years of age, and when we 
remember that God is eternal, and stop and meditate on 
the great meaning of eternity, we will begin to see that 
not only two thousand years, but ten times two thousand 
years, is but a moment in God's sight. The Psalmist has 
said that a thousand years are in Thy sight as a day. We 
can just as truthfully say that ten thousand years, O God, 
are in Thy sight as a day. Yesterday as I was trying to 
meditate on this great word Eternity, Providence so ar- 
ranged it that the mail carrier threw a paper into my 
study, on the first page of which I found these beautiful 
words : 

"Eternity ! Eternity ! Oh if 

The soul could grasp the lengthening, lengthening, 
Ever endless lengthening, lengthening of this, 
The endless endless, never ending endless 
Endlessness, as countless ages roll 
In flaming waves, or glory's tide, 
O'er lost or ransomed soul, 
If crippled wren with broken wing could start 
On earth throughout this endless, endless, 
Never ending endless day 
To hobble from Pacific's peaceful shore 
To where Atlantic's waves and traffic roar. 
Taking the sunset route, the world to cross to fill 
Its mission wide of bearing in its bill 
One single grain of sand from where it first begun 
Its weary, fluttering, wingless course to run. 
Returning slow on each world wide circle trip, 
If when of sands the western ocean's shore it stripped 
And cast them at Atlantic's bosom wide. 
It then reversed and bore to western tide 
The double portion o'er the same long run — 
Eternity, Eternity has just begun." 

I do not believe I have ever seen in human language 
the beginning of eternity described more beautifully than 
in this little poem by Matthew S. Allen. If, therefore, 
my friends, this utter endlessness of which we have heard 
is but the beginning of eternity, you can understand how 
the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Peter could say two 
thousand years ago. The end of all things is at hand. 



SUNDAY AFTER ASCENSION. 465 

And now, my dear friends, after these few words of medi- 
tation, let me ask this question : 

WHAT WOULD YOU DO TODAY IF YOU KNEW THAT TOMORROW 
YOU WOULD BE IN ETERNITY? 

In order to answer this question I may ask you 
twenty-five others today. 

I. Would you become intoxicated? In view of the 
fact that the end of all things is at hand, Peter said. Be 
ye therefore sober. 

1. I am satisfied if you knew that before the sun 
went down tonight you would breathe your last breath, 
you would not think of becoming intoxicated this after- 
noon, and yet we have in this town over fifty-four institu- 
tions set up for no other purpose than simply to make 
drunkards, and hundreds and thousands of men are plung- 
ing in there like flies to the light, day after day, never 
stopping to think that the end of all things is at hand. 
If you knew that this night your soul should stand 
before God, would you spend this afternoon with your 
brain reeling with the deadly sleep of a drunkard? 

2. If you knew that this would be your last day on 
earth and you had the privilege to vote whether the 
saloons shall stay or go, would you vote for the saloon 
to stay ? I know there are some even professed Chris- 
tians who expect to stay here a few years yet, and they 
are afraid on account of the loss of business, or on ac- 
count of the loss of friendship, to vote as their con- 
sciences dictate, but if you knew, if you positively knew 
that this evening at six o'clock your work on earth is 
done, that you have a vote to cast this afternoon that is 
to decide the welfare of your children, and of your chil- 
dren's children for years and years to come, would you 
vote for the damnable institutions to stay? Would you 
do it? 

3. If you knew that you would have to die this 
evening, would you prefer to drink a few glasses of whis- 
key and a few glasses of beer and become dead drunk 

30 



466 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

and roll into eternity in a drunken stupor? When Jesus 
Christ on the cross refused to take the vinegar in order 
that he might die clear minded, would you want to take 
a stupefying draught of any kind the last morning of 
your life? I am satisfied there isn't a man sitting before 
me today that would go to the saloon this afternoon, or 
that Avould vote for the saloon to stay, or would want to 
die drunk, if he knew that this were the end of his life. 
And now I would like to ask this question : Has a man 
a right to do anything two days before he dies that he 
has not a right to do one day before he dies? If I have 
no right to die a drunkard in ten years from today, I 
have no right to be one this afternoon, for I am sure if 
there is smj difference it would be in favor of the last 
day. If I get intoxicated the last day I live it is only 
once, but if I begin this afternoon and get drunk every 
day that I live, and die in a year from now, it means 
three hundred and sixty-five drunks instead of one. And 
what I want to impress upon this intelligent audience 
this morning is this, that the longer the last day is away 
for you or for the world, the more important it is to be- 
gin right now to live right, for every day adds to your 
sum total a great amount of grace or a great amount of 
:sin. 

II. Would you want to live without prayer? The 
Apostle Peter, in view of the fact that he saw the end 
was coming of all things, said "And watch unto prayer.'' 
He did not say Watch and pray as we are told in some 
other sermons of prayer, but Watch unto prayer. In 
other words, he not only means for us to be watchful as 
jou would be if you knew that the thief would break into 
your house tonight, but you must watch for the coming 
of the end, and watch for the opportunity of being where 
you can pray best. Watch unto prayer. 

1. I should like to ask you, if you knew that to- 
morrow you would be in eternity, would you be sorrow- 
ful that you had prayerful parents? I am satisfied there 
are some people in the present day who are not as prayer- 
ful as their fathers and their mothers were. I do not 
know whether all communities are the same — in fact I 



SUNDAY AFTER ASCENSION. 467 

know they are not, but I do knoAv in the old community 
where I lived, though we had some people that had their 
weaknesses, I do not believe there was a family connected 
with the Christian Church that did not have family wor- 
ship. T do not believe that any one of us here had a 
father or a grandfather, or a mother or a grandmother 
who came across the waters, whether from Europe in the 
north, or from the south, that did not come with a God^s 
library, a Bible and a prayer book, and some devotional 
books besides, and you will find when you leaf over those 
old books that their pages are not clean, but they are 
soiled by use. You will find, too, that those parents, 
though they trslj not have stood up and made any very 
loud public prayers, were people that had the conviction 
that they must be honest at any cost, that they must 
pay their debts, that they must give an account before 
God, that they must trust alone in the righteousness of 
Jesus Christ, and that there was not a day passed when 
they did not sit down to their tables and offer a prayer 
of thanksgiving to God at least three times. Were you 
ashamed of those parents? Are you sorry that you had 
a Godly father or a Godly mother? 

2. I would like to ask you furthermore, if you knew 
that tomorrow you would be in eternity, would you mock 
the man that prays for you? Remember there are thou- 
sands of professed Christians all over this world praying 
every day for friends and foes, praying for you, no dif- 
ference who you are, sitting before me this morning, there 
are thousands of prayers ascending to the throne of God 
day after day in your behalf. Would you mock those 
prayers today if you knew that tomorrow you would be 
in eternity? 

3. And would you despise the little closet of prayer? 
The Apostle Peter admonishes us to watch unto prayer. 
What he had in mind is this, every true Christian knows 
the true meaning of that phrase. No difference how 
much we pray in public, no difference how many sermons 
we hear, how many songs of praise and how many public 
prayers, the real genuine Christian is not satisfied until 
he has gotten away from the multitude, away from the 



468 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

best friends he has on earth, away from his own wife 
and children, into some little place where he realizes that 
he is alone with God. Now if you knew that tomorrow 
you were to be in eternity, would you despise the little 
closet of prayer? 

I am satisfied that if you knew that tomorrow you 
would be in eternity you would pray today as you never 
prayed before, but I want to assure you that if you posi- 
tively knew that you w^ere to die tonight it is less im- 
portant that you pray today than it would be if you 
knew that you would live ten years yet. If I must die 
tonight, all that I need to pray for today is for God to 
watch over me twelve hours yet; but if I am to live 
twelve years more, there are hundreds and thousands of 
temptations coming that I knoAV nothing about, and con- 
sequently I need more strength today than I do the last 
day of my life. Watch unto prayer. Seek your little 
closet, bow down in the presence of your God all alone, 
where you do not need to weigh words and think of crit- 
ics, but where you can just pour out your soul to God, 
and remember, my friends, that if you are a Christian 
God will always give you something special to pray for. 
It may be that some of you have felt at times, that now 
if God would give me this thing I am asking for, then I 
will not need to trouble him any more. He gave you the 
very gift you asked for, and just then God gave you 
another problem to solve, and it came right after the 
first one Avas solved, and it still became necessar^^ for 
you to watch unto prayer, and thus He gives you some- 
thing to solve all the time through life. And what a 
blessing it is that everything is not solved this morning! 
What a blessing it is that the time never comes in this 
life when we have nothing to pray over and to pray for! 

III. Would you try to hurt and harm your neigh- 
bor today if you knew that tomorrow you would be in 
eternity? There are some people who seemingly just de- 
light in doing some mean, devilish little trick that hurts 
somebody. Would you do that if tomorrow you knew 
you would be in eternity? Would you do it? Stop and 
avsk yourself the question this morning. Oh! what a state 



SUNDAY AFTER ASCENSION. .469 

of. mind that would be, just to delight to say , ^something 
or do something that might hurt some innocent party. 
The Apostle Peter calls attention to the fact that if the 
end of all things is at hand and eternity is near, we 
ought to become a little more charitable. "And above 
all things" — that is sa^^ ing a good deal — above being 
sober, above praying, above all religion, above all things 
have fervent — warm, almost a hot charity among your- 
selves, for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. Ee- 
member, my dear friends, that no man on earth can hide 
the sins of the world with his charity, only the righteous- 
ness of Jesus Christ can cover sins away from the eyes 
of God, but there is a kind of feeling in the human heart 
that likes to find sin even where it is not. God knows 
and man knows there is enough real sin in the world that 
we must not try to put sin where it is not, and yet there 
are people that just love to try to find sin where there 
is none. They have some kind of a Satanic suspicion 
in their minds that something is wrong somewhere; then 
they think it; the next thing tliey say it; next publish it, 
and it will spread from place to place and from mouth 
to mouth, and then they think they have done something 
noble, trying to lift themselves up by pushing, somebody 
else doAvn. If you knew that tomorrow you would be in 
eternity you would be a little bit careful, would, you not, 
of what you say about your neighbor, when you do not 
know the truth? Do you not remember Avhat Dr. Luther 
taught you in the explanation of the eighth command- 
Dient? I guess the trouble is you have forgotten it. No, 
the great trouble is you never knew it. That is the trou- 
ble. 'We have too many professed Christians, that were 
not correctly catechised; they never knew the true mean- 
ing of .God's Holy Word. While Dr. Luther said of the 
eighth commandment that we should put the most char- 
itable construction on everything, many professed Chris- 
tians are going around putting the worst construction 
on everything. Noav in relation to our neighbor, let us 
have not only a love — for that is what charity means — 
but let T^s have a fervent love. A fervent love, is- a love 
that is warm, a love like the love of a- mother for her 



470 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

dearest child. Let us have such a love for our fellow- 
men, and wherever we can w^e will try and stretch the 
mantle of charity and never find sin where it is not, and,, 
on the other hand, never call black w^hite, either, but 
black black and white W'hite, and where w^e do not knoAv 
that white is black, let us call it white. That is charity. 

IV. Would you exclude company from your home 
today if you knew that tomorrow you would be in eter- 
nity? The Apostle Peter says: "Use hospitality one to 
another without grudging." 

It does seem to me that true hospitality is not 
known today as it has been known in the past, nor known 
in this country as it is in some other countries. There 
are homes in Europe, and in this country, where the 
European spirit still prevails, where you cannot enter 
without being shown a spirit of hospitality concerning 
which the American people know nothing. There are 
some good old German homes where the coffee-pot is 
never taken off the stove, in order that no man may step 
in without a warm drink being given him, homes w^here 
they know that to be hospitable it is not necessary to 
prepare a meal for a king or a queen, but just as simple 
and plain as possible. A bite of bread means so much. 
Just a sip of good warm tea on a cold day means so much, 
and now, if you positively knew that tomorrow you would 
be in eternity, I would like to ask the question if the 
poorly clad came to your door this afternoon, would you 
say. Go away? If you knew that tomorrow^ you would 
be in eternity, would you invite company in this after- 
noon when they come to the door, give them a chair, and 
when they go out say, I am glad they are gone? Would 
you do that? If you knew this, that tomorrow you would 
be in eternity, w^ould you close your blinds down and 
lock the door, and always live as if no one had a right in 
your home but yourself? AVould it not be better, in 
view of the fact that eternity is coming for us all to culti- 
vate a more loving spirit of hospitality? 

V. Would you oppose the Church of God? 

How many people there are in these days actually 
opposing the Church. Jesus Christ said: He that does^ 



SUNDAY AFTER ASCENSION. 471 

not gather with Me scattereth. He that is not for Me 
is against Me. I will admit that a great many people 
are not positively fighting the Church, but they are nega- 
tively doing it. There are names on our own church 
book of people whom I have not seen here twelve times 
in two years. Where are they? They must be blind. If 
they were, then I would have a better feeling for 
them if they were so they could not come. But we 
have men whom I have never seen ; I do not know whether 
they have been in church for ten years or not. Where 
are they? We have men who are in church but absolutely 
do nothing to build up the kingdom of God. We have 
men who would not miss a Divine service for anything, 
and they would not teach a Sunday school class for 
anything; we have men who would not sing a hymn for 
anything, and they would not miss doing nothing for 
anything. The Lord our God has given to every man 
some kind of a gift, and let that gift be what it will, 
he is as responsible for that gift he has as any other 
man for the gift that he has. You are as responsible 
this morning for the gift that God has given you, for the 
place that you occupy in this country, as a citizen, in 
the family and in the church as President Koosevelt is 
in the chair as president of this country. As we heard 
the other night, a penny is just as round as a quarter; 
a quarter is just as round as a dollar, and the penny has 
no more right to be square or to be three-cornered than 
the dollar has. There are penny people in the world; 
there are quarter people in the world and there are dol- 
lar people in the world, but every dollar is responsible 
for one hundred cents, and every quarter for twenty-five 
cents and every penny for a penny, and the Lord our 
God demands of every one of us that we give an account 
of our stewardship on the last great day. Now then, if 
you knew that eternity were open to you tomorrow, and 
that your life is ended, or the world would come to an 
end, what would be your relation to the Church of God 
today? The Apostle Peter tells us what it ought to be: 
"As every man hath received the gift, even so minister 
the same one to another, as good stewards of the mani- 



472 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

fold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak ai^ 
the oracles of God; if any man minister let him do it as 
of the ability which God giveth; that God in all things 
may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise 
and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.'' 

1. If you knew that tomorrow you would be in 
eternity, would you oppose the means of grace? Would 
you refuse to hear God's Word? Would 3^ou go on until 
tomorrow unbaptized? Would you refuse to go to the 
Lord's Supper? Would you refuse to prepare to meet 
your God? My dear friends, the means of grace are the 
means that God has given us to become Christians, and 
for that reason as said in this text of ours. As every 
man hath received the gift, even so minister the same 
one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace 
of God. God pours out His grace to you through these 
means I have mentioned. When you hear God's Word 
the Holy Spirit offers you His grace. When you are 
baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and 
of the Holy Ghost, there you are born of water and the 
Spirit. When Jesus says to you. Take, eat, this is My 
body, and take drink, this is My blood which was shed 
for you for the remission of sins. This do as oft as ye 
drink it in remembrance of Me, what more can God do 
than to come and offer Himself to you? And now the 
question is, what would you do with these means of grace 
if you knew that tomorrow you would be in eternity? 

2. Would you rest all day and do nothing? Some 
people seem to think that Sunday is a day of rest, and 
consequently, although they can be up Saturday night 
until after midnight, and can get up every morning dur- 
ing the week at half past five, they imagine they are doing 
the Lord a wonderful service if they can sleep and snore 
on Sunday until noon. Would you do that if you knew that 
tomorrow you would be in eternity? Would you lie in bed 
during the day, knowing that there are many souls all 
around you that are going to do just like you do? Would 
you leave these things undone? Would you sit down in 
your chair and absolutely do nothing? Remember, my 
friends, that the Apostle Peter tells us that just because 



SUNDAY AFTER ASCENSION. 473 

the end of all things is at hand, it is our purpose to go 
and render God a service. If that is serving God, lying 
in bed and sleeping, or sitting at home doing nothing, too 
lazy to wash and dress, too lazy to go to God's house, 
then God can get service by putting you in your grave 
and putting a rock in the chair or a stone in the bed. 
Man is more than simply a block ; he ought to have brain, 
and God has given him brain with which to work and 
with which to serve his Lord and Master. 

3. Would you seek your own glory if you knew that 
tomorrow would be the end of the world, if you knew 
that tomorrow you would be in eternity? What is the 
trouble with so many people in the present day that they 
are not in church, that they are not good Christians? 
The trouble is that the devil has made them believe that 
if they just try to keep the moral law they will go to 
heaven, and the result is that they are driving the rest 
to the lodge that has no Christ in it instead of the 
true religion; they are listening to the voice that says 
cut off this corner and round up this side, and quit this 
thing and quit that thing, and make yourself a better man, 
and live righteous before the Avorld, and when you die 
it will be all right, and if there is anything in the world 
that makes the devil laugh it is to get a bad man to try 
to make himself better and to succeed in it. The devil 
himself has more respect for a decent child of the devil 
than for a real devilish child of the devil. If there is 
an^^thing the devil loves it is to have one of his own handi- 
work almost an imitation of God's work. What is the 
trouble? Men are giving themselves the glory instead 
of giving it to Jesus, where it belongs. It was true in 
the days of the apostle and it is true today, and it will 
be true on the Judgment Day. If any man speak let him 
speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let 
him do it as of the ability which God giveth : that God 
in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to 
whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. 

Yes, my dear friends, there is the secret of true 
Christianity. We are poor, lost, condemned, helpless sin- 
ners. There is no strength in us. There is no hope in us. 



474 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

There is absolutely no merit in us. God is our all in 
all. Christ is our Savior. He even gives us the faith 
with which we believe in Him. He gives us the spirit of 
prayer. He gives us thankful hearts. He does all. There 
is only one thing that we can do, and that is to rebel 
against Him, and if we will continue to rebel and con- 
tinue to resist Him, He will finally let us stand and will 
go and seek others as He did of old, and let us stand 
until we find ourselves lost, and lost forever. May God 
help us in this morning hour, my dear hearers and friends, 
to lead a new life, to lead it as we would lead it the day 
before we step into eternity, the day before the end of 
the world. Amen. 

PRAYER. 

O God, our heavenly Father, we thank Thee for Thy Word, which 
is the truth and therefore never makes a mistake. We pray Thee in this 
morning hour th'at Thou wilt bless this message to our eternal good. 
Our Father in heaven, do Thou help us to lead a sober and clean life; 
help us to watch for a closet of prayer where we can pour our hearts 
out to Thee. Help us that we may lead a life that is truly hospitable. 
Help us to lead a life that looks to the welfare and happiness of those 
around us. And we ask Thee that Thou wilt cover us with the mantle 
of Thy righteousness and give us of Thine own Spirit that we may try 
to treat our fellowmen as we would ask Thee to treat us. And we pray 
Thee, our Heavenly Father that Thou wilt help us to render Thee a 
service, that we mav not sleep, nor sit down and do nothing, but arise 
in the name of the Lord our God, and with His might and power from 
on high go forth and labor while it is day, for the night comelh when 
no man can work. O Lord our God, bless these dear fathers and 
mothers who are in our presence today with the hoary crowns upon 
their heads. Help that everything they have yet to say and to do may 
be so said and done that the younger generation walking in their foot- 
steps, may walk in the footsteps of Him who will keep them, Jesus 
Christ. And we pray Thee, O God, that Thou wilt be with all young 
fathers and mothers in the training of their children, in establishing 
their homes upon the Rock of Ages. We pray Thee especially to be 
with the youth of this congregation and of our country. Lord, throw 
Thine arms of mercy around them and move some one to go to every 
one in the right hour and in the right moment, to say just the right 
thing to save that one for heaven. We pray Thee to bless the dear 
little children who love to sing songs of praise to Thy name, who are 
starting in life and learning Thy good Word, and when they are old 
they will not depart from it. Bless the little infants, those that have 
just been brought to the altar in Holy Baptism in the past year. We 



SUNDAY AFTER ASCENSION. 475 

pray Thee lo bless the Httle children just born and not yet baptized, 
and may they soon have their names on the records of the church as 
members of Thee, the Christ, who is the Head of the great family of 
God. We pray Thee not only for the newly born children, we pray Thee 
in this day, heavenly Father, that children may be born in the future 
who shall be mighty men of God to do the great work that is to be done 
in the latter age of the world, when Satan with all of his host is fighting 
his last great battle. Give us men of God ! Oh, hear the prayer of 
those who, like Hannah of old, and Elizabeth and Zacharias, are praying 
for Samuels and for John the Baptists. Lord our God, hear all our 
prayers, which we would sum up in that one beautiful prayer which 
Thou, Thyself, hast taught us : 

Our Father who art in heaven ; Hallowed be Thy name ; Thy 
kingdom conie ; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven ; Give 
us this day our daily bread ; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation; 
But deliver us from evil ; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



PENTECOST. 

What Meaneth This? 
Acts 2:1-13. 

HND when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all 
with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a 
sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled 
all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them 
cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they 
were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other 
tongues, as the spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling 
at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now 
when this was noised abroad the multitude came together, and were 
confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own lan- 
guage. And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, 
Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans? And how hear we 
every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? Parthians, and 
Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea, 
and Cappadocia, in Ptntus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, 
and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews 
and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, do we hear them speak in our 
tongues the wonderful works of God. And they were all amazed and 
were in doubt, saying one to another. What meaneth this? Others 
mocking said. These men are full of new wine. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth: 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved Class and Hearers: 

Pentecost is one of the oldest festivals in the Chris- 
tian Church. It is older than the song of Bethlehem; it 
is older than any other festival in the year. Fifteen hun- 
dred years before Christ was born Pentecost was already 
well known among the Israelites. It corresponded in that 
day largely with our Thanksgiving Day now. It Avas a 
day of Thanksgiving to God for the rich harvest, and 

476 



PENTECOST. 477 

especially was it a day in commemoration of the giving 
of the law on Mount Sinai. The word Pentecost means 
the fiftieth day — the fiftieth day from the time the chil- 
dren of Israel left the land of Egypt they received the 
Holy Law of God on Mount Sinai, and fifty days after 
Jesus Christ arose from the dead, we have the great Pen- 
tecost referred to in our text today. It is a notable fact 
in history, in the Bible as well as in profane history, that 
the great messages have always been brief. What a short 
message that was the angels of heaven brought from on 
high when they sang of the new born King! What si 
short message that was that Natlmn brought to King 
David that changed the history of the world. I should 
love to dwell for forty-five minutes on this beautiful 
theme, but the abundance of work today compels me to 
say what I have to say in about fifteen minutes, and for 
that reason I will ask you as a class to pray God the 
Holy Spirit right in this hour to give you a riveted atten- 
tion to every word that I say, that you may not only re- 
member what I say today, but remember it through life. 
When that great Pentecostal scene took place in Jerusalem 
the people were overwhelmed and cried out. What mean- 
eth this? And that is the question that I want to put this 
morning: 

V^HAT MEANETH THISf 

I. What meaneth the Pentecost so great of old? 
II. What meaneth the Pentecost we now behold? 

I. What meaneth this Pentecost of old. It means : 
1. That there was an unusual harmony and prayer 
among those people. "And when the day of Pentecost, 
was fully come the}^ were all with one accord in one 
place." The word "accord" is a positive word. It means 
one heart. They were together in one heart, in one place, 
as we are told in a previous chapter, one hundred and, 
twenty people. Stop and think what that meant? One 
hundred and twenty people had the promise that the 
Holy Spirit was coming; were praying day and night 
for His coming; they had one mind; one thought;, one 



478 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

language; one prayer; one object for living; one object for 
waiting; one object for worshipping, and that was to be 
filled with the Holy Spirit and to fulfil the will of their 
God. Whenever a man makes up his mind that he wants 
to be in harmony with the Lord God Almighty, then he is 
on the right path, and w^henever he is in rebellion against 
God's Holy will he is absolutely wrong. Your very pres- 
ence here this morning shows very clearly that you have 
put the question, What meaneth this? and before we are 
told what this meaneth, this morning, let us go back and 
look over this beautiful text and try to put ourselves in the 
place of those people that said that day. What meaneth 
this? They found out there was a harmony among those 
people that resulted in that great Pentecost. 

2. Not only was there a great harmony there, but 
we also observe that on that day there was a powerful 
exhibition of the Holy Spirit. "And suddenly there came 
a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and 
it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there 
appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and 
it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with 
the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, 
as the Spirit gave them utterance." Is it any wonder 
that the people asked the question. What meaneth this? 
There those people were sitting and all at once there 
was a great sound as if it Avere a storm, and yet there 
was no storm, there was no wind blowing, but it sounded 
to them as though a great storm was coming that would 
sweep the city of Jerusalem away, and yet with all that 
there was no storm. All at once they see something 
like tongues of fire coming down on the people. It was 
not real fire, but it was the Holy Spirit Himself, and 
remember what John promised concerning the Holy 
Spirit. He said "There cometh One after me who shall 
baptize you with fire and with the Holy Ghost.'^ You 
notice that this Holy Spirit was not in the form of a river 
in which they could go and be immersed, but this Holy 
Spirit came doAvn like fiery tongues and sat upon tliem, 
and yet they were baptized with the Holy Ghost, teach- 
ing conclusively that baptism does not mean to plunge 



PENTECOST. 479 

under, that that is not the Scriptural idea, but that it is 
a cleansing of the Holy Spirit coming down like fiery 
tongues, or, if you please, just as much in sprinkling 
when we use water as in immersion. 

3. We notice furthermore not only fire there, not 
only a sound as of a rushing mighty wind, but there were 
new tongues given to these disciples. They spoke as they 
never spoke before. They proclaimed the wonderful 
Word of God to every man visiting that city, and there 
were people there from every island, from the surround- 
ing country, Jews, devout men, not men who never heard 
the Gospel before; not men who never heard the Word 
of God before; not men, as many people suppose, that 
were heathen and were made Christian in a day; they 
had been Bible students ; they were men who had listened 
to the truth for all these years, had waited for a Mes- 
siah, but were not sure that Jesus Christ was that Mes- 
siah, the Son of God, but now the Holy Spirit came down 
on them and convinced them that unbelief is the damn- 
ing sin; that righteousness is not in man but lies in the 
arisen and ascended Lord; that there is a Judgment Day 
coming just as sure as Satan was chained on Calvary's 
hill, and when those people were convinced that now in 
truth the Holy Spirit has come as Jesus said He would, 
now the whole thing is plain to them; Jesus did come 
and die for them, ascended on high; He is the Son of 
God; this is the Holy Spirit; we have got the truth, and 
now we will live a new life and proclaim the risen Lord;: 
and as the storms purify the atmosphere, and the light- 
ning's flash gives us promise of a clear tomorrow, and as 
the fire cleanses and purifies, so the Holy Spirit hath 
now taken hold of us, and sweeping through us, burns 
out the dross and fits us for a life to come ! 

4. What meaneth this Pentecost of old? Not only 
that the people were in harmony, not only that they were 
prayerful, not only that they had a wonderful gift there, 
the gift of tongues, but furthermore, there was a wonder- 
ful growth on that day, on account of the good use of the 
means of grace. I say it was a wonderful growth. That 
morning there were only one hundred and twenty in that 



480 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

upper room praying for the coming of the Holy Spirit. 
That day the apostle Peter preached to them, and before 
evening there were over three thousand souls baptized; 
and not only that but we are told afterwards that over 
five thousand turned to the living God, and they partook 
of the Supper, and they were baptized in the name of the 
Father, Son and Holy Ghost, and the promise was given 
to them and to their children, and to all that were afar 
off. That first day of Pentecost they did not draw a line 
and say thus far and no farther. That promise was given 
to men that now there is salvation for Jew and Gentile, 
salvation for young and old, that there is a gift of the 
Holy Spirit to come to you through the baptism of water. 
Therefore, arise, said Peter, and be baptized, and wash 
away your sins, and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, 
and this promise is to you and to your children, and to 
them that are afar off, and as many as shall be called. 

5. And finally, the last verse of this chapter says 
that the Lord added to the Church daily such as should 
be saved. It seems to me that that first Pentecost settles 
the question as to whether a man can be a Christian and 
be outside of the Church or not. The Lord added to the 
Church daily such as should be saved. How can a man be 
^ child of God and be outside of the Church? How can a 
man be a child of God and stay away from the means of 
grace? How can a man be a child of God and not be bap- 
tized when God says he shall, and not partake of the Holy 
Supper when Christ says. This do in remembrance of Me? 
How can a man be a rebel and be a child of God? It is 
a glorious thing, therefore, to ask the question this morn- 
ing. What meaneth this, as it Avas asked on the great day 
of Pentecost of old? 

II. But, my dear friends, sometimes we feel like 
those aged men that repaired the temple. You remember 
when they came back from captivity the glorious old tem- 
ple had been torn down and burned and then they started 
to build a new temple, and the old fathers wept and cried 
because they saw the difference between the old temple 
in all its glory, and the new one which seemed to them 
«o inferior. The young people who were born in captivity, 



PENTECOST. 481 

never having seen the old temple, laughed and rejoiced, 
but the old people who had seen the glory of the old tem- 
ple and now beholding the inferior new one, cried like 
little babes, and sometimes we feel about the same when 
we compare the present Pentecost with the Pentecost of 
old. When we stop to think how on that morning the 
sound came like a rushing mighty wind, and the fiery 
tongues came down upon the disciples, and how Peter 
preached with such masterh^ power, and how thousands of 
people asked the question. What shall we do to be saved? 
and they all came and partook of the blood and body of 
Christ, and all tried to be a help to each other, and sold 
all their goods and were kind to the poor, and grew in 
number and usefulness to their fellowmen : when then we 
compare the Church of today with its selfishness, when 
we stop to think that many a poor church today is not 
receiving a single member on this day of Pentecost, it 
almost makes us weep, and yet we have a right in this 
church this morning to ask the question. What meaneth 
this? 

What meaneth this, that fifty men and women and 
children shall to-day unite with this Christian Church? 
It means today, my friends, exactly what it meant nearly 
two thousand years ago. Why were there so many people 
added to the Church of old on that first great Pentecost? 
Because there was harmony there. And let me say right 
here that no church on earth ever can prosper until you 
Tiave harmony in that church. Wherever you can get the 
people to fighting among each other in the church of God, 
there God's work is done and the devil has his own way. 
And mark you, the very fact that there are fifty people 
sitting before me to-day who unite with this church, is 
an evidence that the church at large is at harmony; it is 
an evidence that the church at large is prayerful. I do 
not mean to say there is perfect harmony here on earth. 
There never was a church on earth where there were not 
some few people who did as they did on that first day of 
Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was visibly before their 
eyes, when they heard Him as the mighty storm of heaven, 

.31 



482 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

when they saw with their own eyes and heard with their 
own ears that these men were preaching the Almighty Gos- 
pel of Christ in all the known languages, yet there were 
some few people who went around and said, these men are 
full of new wine, and mocked them ; and so you will find a 
mocker standing around here and there on this day of Pen- 
tecost just as well as the Pentecost of old. It may be, dear 
hearers, that you have done some of that mocking your- 
selves, in the past, but dear friends, whether you have or 
not, what meaneth this? It means that after all the great 
body of these Christians are one at heart. It does mean 
that our united prayer is that God in His love will lead 
us all on that narrow way that leads to heaven. It means 
that we are one in praying for the coming of. the Holy 
Spirit, and I question, my friends, whether you can find 
a church on God's earth today that is more in harmony 
than we are. Where is there one where there are so many 
that have one design and one prayer and one aim for the 
spreading of God's kingdom any more than we have here? 
And that is what this means. Just as soon as the Church 
of God is quarreling with itself and debating with itself, 
and the members are fighting among themselves, just so 
soon the addition of souls ceases. God the Holy Spirit 
is in our midst. That is what it means. 

It does not simply mean that we are one in harmony 
and in prayer, but it means furthermore, that you are 
getting the good old Gospel. My dear friends, I have 
often wished that I could preach as Whitefield did, or 
as Luther did. If there is anything in the world that I 
have prayed for and aimed for, it is to be a mighty man 
of God in the pulpit, not for any glory to myself, but 
alone to the glory of God. I recognize, however, that I 
am a very weak man in the pulpit. I recognize more and 
more that without Jesus I can do nothing. I recognize 
that if it were not for His gift and for His presence this 
morning, my work would utterly fail, but there is one 
thing that I will yield to no man, though he can preach 
a thousand times more eloquently, he cannot preach a bet- 
ter Gospel than I am preaching. No man on earth can 
preach a better Gospel than I am preaching. It is 



PENTECOST. 483 

not I, but it is God's Word that you are getting, and I 
challenge any man on God's earth today to point to a 
single declaration I have ever made in this or any other 
pulpit that cannot be substantiated word for word by the 
Word of the Holy Spirit, and consequently, I shall never 
accept the statement that we have a right to our own 
opinions. I have no right to my opinion in this pulpit. 
It is not human opinions you want to hear. If I were 
preaching opinions you would all go out of this church 
and live just as you did before, but every man sitting 
before me this morning must acknowledge that when he 
has heard God's Word from this pulpit he has gone out 
with the conviction in his own conscience that what that 
man taught us today is the Bible, and that is what this 
means this morning. No human tongue can win souls. 
No human power can bring men to God, but there is a 
power in God's Word that nothing but devilish stubborn- 
ness can resist. The apostle Paul, when he described a 
certain class of people that would not come to Christ, 
said. Ye are a stiff-necked people, comparing them with 
the ox that bears the yoke and pulls against everything 
that is right. 

The apostle Paul said, I am not ashamed of the Gos- 
pel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God unto sal- 
vation to them who believe, and so I stand here this 
morning and say that I am not ashamed of the Word of 
God; I am not ashamed of the pure Gospel as confessed 
in the Lutheran Church, and the confession of the Lu- 
theran Church will never be changed until the Holy Spirit 
changes this Bible. 

Sometimes people think it is asking a good deal for 
a man to confess on his confirmation day that he is going 
to be faithful to the churcli until be dies. It would be 
an awful thing to confess to be faithful to a church until 
you die, that doesn't preach the truth, but what else can 
you do when you have the truth exactly as the Holy Spirit 
gave it? You have either to be faithful to that or not 
be a Christian at all, so it is nothing out of place when 
you will be asked the question, Will you be faithful to 
the Lord Jesus Christ as confessed in the Evangelical 



484 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

Lutheran Church until death? Your answer Yes, means, 
I confess I will accept God's eternal Word just as He 
gave it, until I die, and that is the only confession worth 
making and the only vow worth taking. 

What meaneth this? It means that the Church of 
God grows today as it grew of old. While it is true that 
there are only fifty souls added to this congregation 
today, it is true that there are this morning thirty-five 
thousand Lutheran preachers all over this world preach- 
ing Christ and Him crucified to a dying world, and I am 
safe in saying that a large percentage of these ministers 
of the Gospel are meeting the newly confirmed members 
and not three thousand, but possibl}^ thirty times three 
thousand souls are being added to th^ Church of God in 
this very hour. 

What meaneth this? It means that the Church of 
God will grow where the Word of God is taught in its 
truth and purity, and not the opinions of men, and where 
this truth is preached to hearts of the people that have 
one accord and one prayer for the extension of God's 
kingdom, and where those few stand around and mock 
and say these men are full of new wine, all are over- 
whelmed with the mighty truth and souls are coming to 
God. 

One man was unkind enough not long ago to say, It 
is true the First Lutheran Church is growing, but what 
kind of people are they getting, and a man who stood by 
his side said, I will tell you. Here is a man that was a 
drunken old sot, and toda}^ he is one of the best men in 
the city. That is the kind of people they are getting. 
That is not the only kind, they are getting some of the 
best citizens of Mansfield, but I want you to understand 
the real truth, the Gospel was intended to help people, 
and all of them, and any man that will say the Church of 
God should refuse to take any other person on earth, 
does not understand the work of the Holy Spirit nor the 
Word of God in general. I am proud of every member 
that has come into this church and I pray God thi« day 
that you will all be so directed that you will stand as 
monuments of the wonderful grace, of God. 



PENTECOST. 485 

What does this mean? It means that if we do more 
for the poor and practically carry out the old Pentecostal 
spirit in the present day that this church must grow and 
grow and grow until we have more people than we can 
contain within these walls. It means that the people will 
come together there where they feel that the great Church 
of God is in its fulness, and if you want to know why 
people are attracted to this congregation today, it isn't 
due to any one man, but it is due to the teaching of a 
chain of men who from the very organization of the First 
Lutheran Church, have given their hearts wholly to the 
Master, men who have learned how to say, we want to be 
helpful to others and to all; who have said, we want a 
church not for the rich, a church not for a select class of 
people, but we AVant a church for immortal souls, and 
when there is hunger we want to feed ; when there is thirst 
we want to give a drink ; when there is nakedness we want 
to clothe; when in prison Ave Avant to visit them, and do 
for them as Ave would do for the Lord Jesus Christ. And 
Avhere that sjjirit preA^ails there you will find the Holy 
Spirit, and Avhere the Hol}^ Spirit is there you aa^II find 
souls growing in grace," and added to the church such as 
should be saved. 

And in conclusion, dear class, to what I have said 
to you, let me add just these three thoughts : 

1. Buy good books. You know, my dear friends, 
hoAv little you have been required to learn to come into 
this class. A good deal less than I have ever demanded 
of any other class in my life, and yet I did feel that if I 
could just give you a good start on the narrow road we 
would have school afterwards, and consequently I urge 
upon each of you today to voav before God that you are 
going to have a little library you are going to study in 
the future, and in that little library do not forget first 
of all that little catechism. The more you study that little 
book, the more you hear that book, the more you will 
find out what a wonderful gem it is ; and therefore, I urge 
upon you all, whenever you have the opportunity in the 
future to join the larger catechetical class, come and hear 
more and more. There is one in this house that has srone 



486 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

through that catechism seven times since 1 am in jour 
midst, and no one knows better than that one what a 
wonderful blessing that has been. And now I will ask you 
to go just as often as you can to catechetical instruction 
and learn more and more of the true doctrine of God's 
Word. 

I would ask you to get a Bible history. You can buy 
a Bible history that will be a wonderful help to you in 
your understanding of the Bible. Bu}^ that and read it, 

I would have you get a good Bible with good large 
print, call it your own, read it noAV and make up your 
mind that you will read that Book until you die, so that 
when you are old and your eyes begin to fail that you 
can at a glance at a page know what is on that page be- 
cause you have read it before, so the time will never come 
that you cannot read the good old Bible. 

Then I would ask you to get a hymn book so that 
when you come to church you can open to the hymn and 
help praise God, and when you have your catechism and 
Bible history, and your Bible and hymn book, then sub- 
scribe for a good church paper, and keep in mind day by 
day what God is doing today. I come to some men and 
say. Why don't you take a church paper? Oh, they say, 
I have a Bible. You might just as well quit taking the 
daily paper and go look at your United States history 
every evening. The Lord God isn't giving us the daily 
papers, but He is giving us the church papers that we may 
know what God is doing in the church every day. So I 
would say a good Christian should have the church paper 
and should study all these things. 

2. In the second place, I would have you learn all 
you can of God's Holy Word. Learn it in the catechetical 
class. Learn it in the Sunday School. Do not think like 
some people that you are too old to go to Sunday School. 
No man on earth is too old to study God's Word half an 
hour before Divine service, and it will be a blessing if you 
will go next Sunday morning into some Bible class; go 
and sit down and study God's Word and make your Sun- 
day School lesson just as regular as you do your meal. 
Some people eat only one meal a day; they are going to 



PENTECOST. 487 

lose health. Eat three meals a day and study God^s Word 
every day. You need it. 

Not only go to Sunday School but to divine service. 
Unless you are sick and on your bed be found in God's 
house every Sunday. Do not say you cannot. The Lord 
God never gave us a single law that was impossible. He 
says, Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy. Dear 
friends, the same God who said, Honor thy father and 
mother, wants you to honor father and mother, wants 
you to keep the Sabbath Day holy, because He said so. 
Therefore, I urge upon you, let not this day pass by when- 
ever it comes without being in God's house and hear the 
Word of God. No one is so poor that he will not get 
something to take houxe with him to be food for his soul. 

And then study God's Word at home. Open the Bible 
every day, learn something, if only a verse or two, medi- 
tate on them, and pray over them. You will grow. We do 
not get to be Christians in an hour. These beautiful 
flowers did not come out in a night. The bulb was 
planted, it grew, and at last came out this beautiful flower 
we see this morning. Our growth will be longer and 
slower til an that of the floAver. Here is a little egg, a 
little chicken comes out, in an hour it runs, and we 
often think, Oh, that the little babe could do that. 
But babes get older than chickens do and consequently 
it takes longer to raise babes than chickens, and it takes 
longer to raise men who get to be seventy-five years old 
than it does to rai«e a flower that only lives today and to- 
morrow is thrown into the fire. Consequently, we must 
learn that this growth is gradual, and you ought to study 
God's Word every day at home and thus grow in grace. 

May God help you to grow day by day, learn more and 
more of God's eternal truth and then when your last 
hour comes and you breathe your last, you will not only 
rejoice that you have done your part in this world, but 
all your friends will rejoice. Oh, I believe, my dear 
friends, that there is great joy in heaven this morning! 
How some of your fathers and mothers would rejoice if 
they could sit here and see you! And may be they do 
.see you. I believe they do. And what joy there would be 



488 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

in their hearts to know you are here in God's house doing 
your part to serve your fellowmen. May the Holy Spirit 
direct you this day and through life, and may the prayers 
of this whole church go up to the heavenly throne in behalf 
of those who come to this altar today. Amen. 
(Communion). 



TRINITY SUNDAY. 
The Divine Deep. 
EOM. 11:33-36. 

OTHE depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of 
God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past 
finding out ! For who hath known the mind of the Lord ? or 
who hath been His counsellor? Or who hath first given to Him, and 
it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of Him and through Him 
and to Him, are all things : to whom be glory forever. Amen. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved in Christ: 

The sea and the seas of the world are a great study. 
If you were this morning standing on some lonely island 
in the midst of the ocean, you could hardly imagine that 
you are standing on the summit of a great mountain. 
If the waters of the sea were suddenly to leave you, you 
would find that that island is nothing but the top of a 
great mountain that goes down to the fathomless deep. 
I call it fathomless, not because it has no bottom, but 
there are places in the sea over ^ve miles deep, and no 
one knows exactly how deep the deepest place of the sea 
is. The sea itself is a wonderful part of the world, cover- 
ing about three-fourths of the surface of the earth, filled 
With salt water, which itself has never been solved by 
the great intelligence of the world. Not a man on earth 
can tell us why the sea is filled with salt water and 
always just the same amount of salt. There are many 
theories, and one is that there is a mountain of salt some- 
where, but if there be a mountain of salt in the sea, why 
should not the sea get more salty? Why should it always 

489 



490 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

be the same? And then again we see the great wisdom of 
God. We see the great deep Divine as well as the deep of 
the waters. If it were not for the salt water of the great 
oceans the world could not live; everything would go to 
corruption. Not only is this true, but the sea would not 
be the highway it is to bear the heavy burdens, for only 
salt water could bear the burdens that cross the Atlantic 
and the Pacific. God, in his wisdom, has buried many 
treasures in the great sea as it surrounds this earth. I 
wish this morning, however, to call your attention to this 
great truth, that the ocean with all its wonders is only 
a drop in the great sea Divine. Your attention then is 
called this morning to 

THE DIVINE DEEP. 

I. It is just as deep as God. 
II. It is fathomless for man. 

I. The Apostle Paul stood before this great Deep 
when he cried out: O the depth of the riches both of the 
wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are 
His judgments, and His ways past finding out! For who 
hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been His 
counsellor? Or who hath first given to Him, and it shall 
be recompensed unto Him again? For of Him and 
through Him and to Him, are all things: to whom be 
^lory forever. Amen. As the Apostle Paul stood before 
the great deep of God, he realized that this Deep 
is just as deep as God Himself; just as deep as the 
Trinity; just as deep as His riches; just as deep as His 
wisdom.; just as deep as His knowledge. 

1. The Trinity Himself is a great deep. This epistle 
has been selected by the Church of God as one very ap- 
propriate to give us the great doctrine of the Trinity. 
You remember that in the first season of the Church year 
we dealt with the love of God that gave His Son to the 
world; and then we began to treat of Jesus Christ who 
gave His own life to save the world; and then the Holy 
Spirit who proceeds from the Father and the Son, and 



TRINITY SUNDAY. 491 

calls, and gathers, enlightens, sanctifies and keeps us. 
Now we are approaching the last half of the Church year. 
The festivals are now in the past. Now we are going 
to treat, not of one person of God, but of three, namely, 
the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. And Paul, looking into 
this great doctrine of the Trinity, cried out, O, the depth 
of this Trinity, for of Him and through Him and to Him 
are all things. Of the Father, through Jesus, and to the 
Holy Spirit, are all things. One God and three persons. 
Is there any greater deep in all the world than the essence 
of God? Ask yourself the question. Who is God? and 
the Bible gives the answer. The Lord He is God and 
beside Him there is none else. Hear, O Israel, the Lord 
our God is one Lord. The very first commandment settles 
it that there is but one God. I am the Lord thy God," 
thou Shalt have no other gods before Me. And yet in 
this same Word we find that the Father is God ; that the 
Son is God ; and that the Holy Spirit is God ; and to one 
who does not understand the revelation of God's Word 
as given to us, it might seem as if there were three Gods 
and yet only one, which would be a contradiction. No,, 
there is nothing in the Bible contrary to reason, but there 
are thousands of things in the Word of God away above 
reason, and this is one of them, the essence of God, one 
God in three persons. There is no philosopher in the 
world who can solve the Trinity. No difference whether 
the man be Gladstone, or Emperor William, or any great 
theologian, wherever he stands, he must simply bow his 
head and say, I bow before Thee, the great God, Father, 
Son and Holy Ghost. I do not understand Thee. I can- 
not comprehend Thee. Thou are too great for me. Oh, 
the depth of the Divine deep! Let us be thankful this 
morning to God that the Trinity itself is not a doctrine 
which has been brought forth by man. No man on earth 
ever could have thought out the Trinity. It is a revela- 
tion from heaven. It is the essence of the Triune God. 

2. So we find also that this Divine deep is just as 
deep as His riches. O the depth of the riches of God! 
And what is this riches? We find this beautifully ex- 
pressed in the last verse. For of Him, and through Him,. 



492 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

and to Him are all things. And these ^'all things/' and 
the things that God the Father hath given us in creation, 
and God the Son hath given us in redemption, and God 
the Holy Spirit hath given us in sanctification, and 
Avhether we look at creation, or redemption, or sanctifi- 
cation, we are compelled to cry out. Oh, the Divine deep, 
and the wealth of our God ! It makes no difference where 
you look in creation, you see the riches of God. A man 
Avould be as dumb as a brute if he could look at that little 
bouquet of flowers and not saj^. Oh, the riches of God that 
could put all those varied colors in that beautiful little 
23etal. None but the wealth of God could irive us such 
flowers. These are only a few we flnd in the same garden. 
One step further and the same soil gives us this beautiful 
rose, and it is but another step further and there we see 
that the same soil has produced a rose of another color, 
and thus on through the garden, and through the yard, 
and through all creation, from the tops of the mountains 
down to the depths of the sea, everywhere we behold the 
great wealth of the creation of our God. Oh, the depth 
of the Divine deep ! 

Not only is it true that there is wealth in creation, but 
there is also a great Avealth in redemption. Not only of 
Him, but through Him, are all things. Let us not for- 
get that Jesus Christ is the Word that became flesh, and 
let us not forget that Jesus says that without Him was 
not anything made that was made. Let us not forget that 
Jesus Christ who was nailed on the cross of Calvary made 
the worlds, and is the Word that the Father spoke which 
afterwards became flesh. And so we look at Jesus Christ's 
redemption on the cross, and we are compelled to 
say. Oh, the depth of that redemption! Oh, the wealth of 
that redemption ! Just stop a moment and think of your 
own value and you will begin to realize what the value 
of Christ's redemption was. Jesus says of you yourself, 
that you are worth more than all the world. If creation 
is rich in the mineral world, my dear friends, you your- 
selves are richer in the animal world, and God has made 
you so precious that He declares that all the world to 
be gained would be a loss if you had to give your soul 



TRINITY SUNDAY. 498 

in exchange for it. That God who has made you more 
precious than all the world found you lost and found me 
lost, and all the millions and billions of people that have 
dwelt on the earth were lost, and He paid tlie price, gave 
the ransom for this lost world through His Son Jesus 
Christ on Calvary's hill. Therefore Avhen you look at the 
<?ross remember that there hangs the great wealth of re^ 
demption. No wonder Luther wrote in his explanation 
of the Apostles' Creed, that we are redeemed not with 
gold nor silver, but with His holy precious blood, and 
with His innocent sufferings and death; in order that 
we might be His, live under Him in His kingdom, and 
serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence and 
blessedness; even as He is risen from the dead, and lives 
and reigns to all eternity. This is most certainly true. 
What is most certainly true? That redemption is the 
great Divine deep of His wealth. 

And this is just as true of His sanctification. For of 
Him and through Him, and to Him, are all things. Let us 
not forget that the Holy Spirit has given us the new birth, 
and let us not forget that it is He who speaks to us through 
the Holy Word of God. Let us not forget that it is He 
who calls us, and gathers us, and enlightens us, sanctifies 
and keeps us ; and let us not forget that the devil, and the 
world and the flesh can never grasp us from the hands 
of the Holy Spirit if we will but listen to His voice and 
follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. Oh, the wealth 
of the sanctification of the Holy Spirit ! 

3. Not only is it true that this Divine deep is as 
deep as the Trinity, and as deep as His riches, but it is 
just as deep as His wisdom. O the depth of the riches, 
both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How un- 
searchable are His judgments and His ways past finding 
out. For Avho hath known the mind of the Lord, or who 
hath been His counsellor? Here Ave see the great wisdom 
of God'S deep. Who hath knoAvn the mind of God? How 
often do we hear men say. Do you comprehend this Word 
of God? And how often we hear Christians say, I cannot 
believe this doctrine or that doctrine because I cannot 
comprehend it. Oh, what nonsense! I told you the story 



494 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

a year ago to-day of St. Augustine in his dream going 
past the ocean and seeing what he thought at first was a 
little boy dipping the ocean dry with a sea shell, and 
when he rebuked that boy for his foolishness, the little 
boy said, I can dip this ocean dry just as quickly as you 
can fathom the Trinity. — for that is what the great 
Church father was trying to do. He was trying to com- 
prehend the doctrine of the Trinity, a thing that was 
useless. Then said the boy. With this sea shell I will dip 
the ocean dry before you fathom the Trinity. And he 
looked at the boy a second time and it was an angel from 
heaven, teaching St. Augustine the wonderful truth that 
God cannot be comprehended. And if you would all stop 
and think a moment on that line you would not have your 
foolish notions about the Lord's Supper. You would not 
stand before the altar of God and say this is only bread 
and wine, when God says This is Mj body and this is 
My blood; you would say. Lord, Thou hast spoken the 
truth; I cannot comprehend it; I believe it. Dear 
friends, it is a great deep, and the great depth lies in this, 
that no man knows the mind of God. No man can take 
the ocean and put it into a sea shell; no man can take 
a barrel of meat and put into a thimble; and no man 
can take the great mind of God and crowd it into a few 
ounces of brain. We must believe the message of God 
because it is a great deep. What a foolish man that would 
be that would say, I do not believe there is an ocean be- 
cause I have never been down at the bottom. The man 
that has been in the navy all his life is satisfied to stay 
on top of the water; he doesn't try to go to the bottom; 
and so it is enough for you and for me, on this great 
Divine deep, simply to know that what we do not know 
God does. 

4. And who hath been His counsellor? Who told God 
how to make the stars? Who told Him where to place 
the sun? Who told God how to shovel out the oceans and 
lakes and streams and put up the mountains? Who told 
God to make the earth just as it is, with all its flowers? 
Where were you Avhen God laid the foundations of the 
world? Do you remember the question that God put to 



TRINITY SUNDAY. 495 

Job? That is the question I put to you this morning. Oh, 
my friends, long before there was a man on earth God 
had made all His plans. He doesn't need your counsel 
nor mine. We stand before the Divine deep, and who has 
ever been able to trace His judgments? We are told 
in the 36th Psalm, "His judgments are a great deep.'' 
In the text of today we read, "How unsearchable are His 
judgments and His ways past finding out!'' The hound 
can follow the deer, but it is a foolish dog that tries to 
follow the ship across the trackless ocean. The dog may 
follow the rabbit to liis hole, but it is a foolish dog that 
tries to follow the eagle in his flight over the clouds. 
And thus, dear friends, we may see and trace the 
hand of God in the things around us, but let me assure 
you that the time will never come when any man can 
trace the judgments of God. Years ago I tried my best to 
find the best book in the world on the philosophy of history. 
I bought one book after the other on the philosophy of 
history, and I read history after history, and phil- 
osophy after philosophy, and every time when I was 
done I had to throw the book down and say, Oh, 
yon foolish man, you haven't solved the problem at 
all, and it never occurred to me even in the eighteen years 
of my ministry that God told us long ago that no man on 
earth can ever write the philosophy of history. How un- 
searchable are His judgments and His ways past find- 
ing out! The man that stands up before an audience and 
tells just what is going to happen in the future, you 
can make up jonv mind is a fool. That is in the hands 
of God to tell us all about the future. No man can say 
exactly what it will be. A few years ago as I was riding 
through Mansfield when I knew none of you, a man who 
seemed to be very wise explained to me fully why it was 
Ave had so few rains. He said, "The day will come before 
long when this whole country will be a desert because we 
are cutting down the trees and consequently there will 
be no heavy rains in the future." This whole past week 
has said that man was a fool. It has been raining as it 
has not rained for many years. Who can tell when it is 
goin^ to rain? Who knows to-day what kind of weather 



496 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

there will be tomorrow? Who reads the newspapers and 
the reports of the weather prophet and makes up his^ 
mind that it is going to be just as the man says? No, 
my dear friends, history lies in the hand of God, and while 
we may have general outlines of how things happen and 
hoAV they may be in the future, and while the light of 
Eevelation brings us the true will of God concerning some 
things, we do not know how God is going to bring the 
next answer to our prayers. We may pray for one thing 
and He will bring the answer in a far different way than 
we ever expected. Oh, we must all acknowledge that 
God's judgments are a great deep! 

II. While we have studied this great truth this 
morning that the Divine deep is just as deep as God, do 
not forget that it is fathomless for man. 

1. It is fathomless for man, and consequently it 
demands faith. The Apostle Paul has been treating in 
the first three chapters here, previous to the text, of the 
great fall of Israel, of the Gospel being sent to the 
heathen, and how in the end the Gospel will come back in 
its mercy and save Israel again, and in studying this 
wonderful doctrine of our God, he found himself launch- 
ing out to so great a depth that he simply stopped and 
cried out, O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom 
and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judg- 
ments and his ways past finding out! In other words, the 
Apostle Paul showed the Komans there was only one way 
to be saved, and that is through faith in Jesus Christ, 
whether a man be Jew or Gentile, it is the only thing 
for us to do. And now, since we have heard this morning" 
hoAv the Divine deep is too deep to be comprehended, let 
us now take hold of all of God's promises by faith, and 
remember it is the way to live. Yes, faith is what we 
must all pray for. As you have heard this morning, you 
never can comprehend the mighty deep of God, conse- 
quently God in His wisdom has said, I will not ask you to 
comprehend Me. I will not ask you to fathom this deep. 
All I ask of you is to know that there is a deep here. 
That should satisfy you. And the thing for you to do 
is to trust that deep and have faith in Me and I will do 



TRINITY SUNDAY. 497 

the rest. Yes, what we need is faith. This beautiful little 
poem fell into my hands this morning, which expressed 
exactly what I want to say : 

"Serene I fold my hands and wait 

Nor care for wind, or tide, or sea; 
I rave no more 'gainst time or fate, 
For lo ! my own shall come to me. 

I stay my haste, I make delays 

For what avails this eager pace? 
I stand amid the eternal ways, 

And what is mine shall know my face. 

Asleep, awake, by night or day, 

The friends I seek are seeking me; 

No wind can drive my bark astray, 
Nor change the tide of destiny. 

What matter if I stand alone? 

I wait with joy the coming years; 
My heart shall reap where it has sown 

And garner up its fruit of tears. 

The waters know their own, and draw 

The brook that springs in yonder height; 

So flows the good with equal law 
Unto the soul of pure delight. 

The stars come nightly to the sky ; 

The tidal wave unto the sea; 
Nor time, nor space, nor deep, nor high, 

Can keep my own away from me." 

Let the sea and the waves roar, let all things go as 
they please, there is a Hand that governs the destiny of 
nations; there is a God in whom we can trust; there is 
One who leads the way, and in Him we are safe. Believe 
in God, my dear friends. The Divine deep is un- 
fathomable. 

2. And then I would call your attention to this 
great truth, that the sea conceals great wealth. We some- 
times think that all of the world lies on the earth. If 
we could go down to the bottom of the sea today we would 
find animals there much larger and much older than on 

32 



498 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

earth. The elephant and the largest animals on earth 
sink into insignificance compared with the great whales 
and the great monsters of the sea. Here the animals 
live only a short time, but there are animals in the great 
ocean that are older than ^^onder oaks on the hill. Oh, 
if we could just know the wealth that lies down in the 
bottom of the great sea! And during the past week not 
only ten thousand soldiers of Japan went down to the 
bottom, but all those rich vessels lie down at the bottom 
of the sea; and who can count all the vessels that have 
gone down, and all the bulk of gold and silver and jewels 
that have been buried in the bottom of the sea by the 
storms and the waves that have roared in all the past? 
Oh, we must acknowledge that the great deep is full of 
wealth and full of riches. And so it is with the great 
deep Divine. Oh, the riches of God's creation! Oh, the 
riches of God's redemption! Oh, the riches of God's 
sanctification ! Oh, the riches of the book of revelation! 
Wherever we look we behold the great deep of our God 
full of wealth. Every verse of the Bible is full of gold. 
Pray over it and shake it until the fruit falls into your 
hands. I called your attention a moment ago to the fact 
that if the oceans were not filled Avith salt water, the 
water itself would perish and become corrupt, and the 
whole earth would lose the life now in it. And so as 
there is life in the great deep, there is life in the deep 
Divine. Let us stop trying to trace our own way. Let 
us go to Him who said, I am the Way, the Truth and the 
Life, and no man cometh to the Father but by Me. In the 
hot months you will find the wealthy people, and those 
who are not rich, leaving home and going to the sea in 
order that there they may enjoy the breeze of the saline 
waters, in order that there they may regain their health, 
and get the nervous force sufficient for the battles of the 
coming year. Why? Because the great deep is the healer 
of the nations. And so we must go to the great deep of 
God's Word that our souls may be healed and that we 
may be well in soul as well as in body. 

4. And last of all, just because this sea is so un- 
fathomable, it is safe. There was a time when the people 



TRINITY SUNDAY. 499 

of this world imagined that they never could cross the sea 
because of the depth of the water. The old sailors stayed 
along the shore and they played along the shallow waters, 
and every time the storms came their ships would dash 
against the shores and against the rocks, and more men 
lost their lives close to the shore than ever lost them in 
the middle of the deep. The old men in the navy know 
far better. The men who sail out week after week and 
year after year always feel perfectly safe when they are 
out in the middle of the deep. And so it is with regard 
to our religion. There are some people who are always 
groveling around in the shallow waters, people who have 
come into the church without proper catechization, peo- 
ple who know too little of God's Holy Word, people who 
know nothing about the doctrines, people who are honest 
and sincere, but the great trouble with them is that they 
have no promise in their minds, no Word of God in their 
hearts; they are always sailing around in the shallow 
waters and the first little storm that comes up makes a 
shipwreck of their faith; they go to destruction. The 
man that is safe is the one that will launch out into the 
deep. When the Savior told the apostle to go out and 
fish, he did not tell him to stay along the shore. Launch 
out into the deep, He said, and then they drew up so 
many fish that the boat began to sink. And so I cry out 
to this congregation, stop dwelling in shallow waters! 
Do not remain ignorant of God's Holy Word. Go to the 
Sunday School class and study the lesson week after 
week and day after day. Come to the Divine service and 
hear God's Holy Word, that you may be more and more 
fitted for the path of life, and be able to plunge out into 
the great ocean of God's mighty deep, and you will find 
yourself safe — safe in time and safe in eternity — safe 
forever! As I stated a moment ago, there was a time 
when sailors were afraid to cross the mighty deep. They 
thought that all the dangers of the world would be 
averted if only there were not so much water. The ques- 
tion four centuries ago was, how can we get rid of this 
great trouble, the seas? In the present day how the peo- 
ple work for passages across the hills and through the 



500 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

mountains! How they work to lay tracks for street cars 
and all manner of conveyances for traffic, never remem- 
bering the great truth when God laid the highway of the 
deep, He made the best way of passage there ever was 
in the world. Today ^e recognize the fact that the sea 
is the blessing of the Avorld ; that the ocean is the way to 
reach the nations; that that is the best way to equip 
ourselves for travel. Get your vessels and God will lay 
the track; get your vessels and God will give you the 
bridges; get your bridges for the ships and you can go 
from nation to nation and visit all the world in boats. 
It is God's highway. Thus, my dear friends, it is with 
the Divine deep. Do not be afraid of the great ocean of 
God's Revelation and of the great ocean of God's mighty 
Providence. His ways are past finding out, but they are 
perfectly safe, and they are the highway that leads to 
God. And consequently I urge upon you all this morning 
to go to the Father in prayer, on the highway of the great 
deep Divine. Amen. 

PRAYER. 

O heavenly Father, we thank Thee in this morning hour that Thy 
mind is too great for us to comprehend ; that Thou hast arranged all 
things without asking us for counsel, and that even in this day of en- 
lightenment we are not yet able to write the philosophy of history, 
O Father in heaven., there is a philosophy of history which Thou bast 
given to which we can hold, and that is that all things work together 
for good to them that love God. If we cannot understand why Thou 
shouldst come and take a mother away from her little children, or why 
Thou shouldst come and take away from a family their only son, or 
why Thou shouldst come into the world and take away from a congre- 
gation their beloved pastor, or why Thou shouldst come into a home 
and take away the head of the family, O God help us to remember if 
we do not understand it that Thou dost. Let us remember this morning 
that we are in a great deep, and that this great deep is Divine, and be- 
cause it is Divine it is safe, and because it is safe it is the highway that 
leads to heaven. O Lord help us all this morning to launch out into 
the deep with the song and prayer, which Thou hast taught us : 

Our Father who art in heaven; Hallowed be Thy name; Thy 
kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven; Give 
us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation; 
But deliver us from evil; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



FIRST SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 

Who Is a Liar? 

1 John 4 :16-21. 

600 is love : and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and 
God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may 
have boldness in the day of judgment : because as He is, so are 
we in this world. There is no fear in love ; but perfect love casteth out 
fear ; because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect 
in love. We love Him because He first loved us. If a man say: I love 
God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar, for he that loveth not his 
brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not 
seen? And this commandment have we from Him. That he who loveth 
God love his brother also. 

Sanctif}' us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved in Christ: 

We are not surprised to find from the apostle John 
a beautiful message of love. He is the one apostle who 
died a natural death, and who reached the age of about 
one century. It is said of him that when he was so old 
he could not walk to the house of God any more, he had 
men to carry him into the church, and every time before 
he left that church he would arise just long enough to 
say, "Little children, love one another." What a beauti- 
ful scene! How many people there are this morning who 
could come to the house of God themselves and they will 
not, with the strength that God gave them, but John, 
the apostle of love, allows himself to be carried, and urges 
others to carry him where he might hear the sweet Word 
of the living God. 

It seems somewhat strange to us when we realize 
that he was the apostle of love, that Jesus Christ when 

501 



502 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

He called him to the apostleship, should have given him 
and James the surprising name, Sons of thunder; and 
yet it is no surprise. The same good kind mother who is 
filled with love, at times becomes a mother of thunder 
if things do not go right; and we may not be surprised 
at all on the Judgment Day, to find out that Jesus, the 
loving Master, when He sees that He has finally been re- 
jected, will arise as a Son of thunder. 

Nor will it surprise us when we stud}^ the history of 
love more carefully, to find that this loving man, almost 
a hundred years old, carried into the church, saying to 
the people as little children that they should love each 
other, was the very man that above all others called men 
liars when thej refused to tell the truth. In the text of 
today he uses these inemorable words: "If a man say, 
I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar." The 
theme which I wish to dwell upon this morning is this : 

WHO IS A LIAR? 

May the Holy Spirit help us to examine ourselves 
carefully, and if we should find that we are liars, let us 
by all means, from this day on, strive by God's help, to 
tell the truth at all times. 

I. We w^ould not be fair to the pen of John to tear 
this text from its connection. A liar is a man who does 
not always tell the truth. How many people there are 
who take offense w^hen it is said of them, they are liars; 
and yet we know that when a man once commits murder 
he is a murderer. A man does not have to take the life 
of more than one person to be a murderer; a man does 
not have to steal more than once to be a thief; a man 
does not have to steal a horse, or thousands in gold to be 
a thief; the man who deliberately takes a lead pencil is 
a thief. The man who once takes the life of any man is 
a murderer and will be all his life ; and I am only telling 
a God's truth when I say that your preacher is a liar, 
when I say that you are a liar ; for there is not a person 
in this house today that has never told an untruth, and 
if you have told one untruth you are a liar. God's Word 



FIRST SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 503 

says. Thou slialt not bear false witness against thy neigh- 
bor, and you can break that commandment just as effect- 
ually by breaking it once as you can the fifth, which says, 
Thou shalt not kill. If this hand of mine had ever taken 
human life I could never escape the fact that I am a mur- 
derer ; and if this tongue has ever told a thing not exactly 
true, it has lied, and I am a liar. So you see there are 
liars just as many as there are human beings. 

II. But God forgives sins, and we may look upon 
the Christian when once forgiven as being now innocent. 
Therefore, I put the question again: Who is a liar? and 
on the authority of this chapter I say that he is a liar 
who says that a religion without Christ in it is good. 
''Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits 
whether they are of God; because many false prophets 
are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit 
of God : Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is 
come in the flesh is of God : And every spirit that confess- 
eth not that Jesus Christ is come into the flesh is not of 
God : and this is that spirit of anti-Christ, whereof ye have 
heard that it should come, and even now already is it in 
the world." John assures us here that the anti-Christ 
is not one who stands up and fights Christ, but the anti- 
Christ is one who gives forth a religion without Jesus in 
it, and this spirit was to come and was already in exist- 
ence in the days of John. And that spirit is around us 
today. There are very few ministers and very few Chris- 
tians that weigh this point as carefully as they ought. 
Anything that looks religious to them looks holy; any- 
thing that' looks like prayer looks Divine; and yet we 
all know that the devil is just as religious as any man on 
earth ever was, the only difference being that he is the 
anti-Christ, and any man who takes part in any worship, 
it makes no difference where it is, whether in church or 
a lodge, without Christ in it, is an anti-Christ and fight- 
ing the Lord Jesus Christ, because he is establishing that 
which is opposed to Jesus. Therefore, it only takes a 
little brain put into active thinking, to see that the world 
today is full of liars who are holding up a Christless 
religion. 



504 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

III. Again, if I ask the question, AVlio is a liar? I 
answer, That man is a liar wlio pretends to be a Christian 
but does not want to go to God's house and hear His Word. 
"We are of God: He that knoweth us; he that is not of 
God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, 
and the spirit of error.'' John distinctly decides in this 
verse that he and the apostles were of God. He goes on 
to say that he knoAveth God heareth us. He does 
not say, goes and hears some one else, or sits at 
home and doesn't care what he hears. "He that is not of 
God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, 
and the spirit of error." How can I decide whether a man 
is a Christian or not? How can I know, if a man has his 
name on the church book of the First Lutheran Church, 
or of any other church, and Sunday after Sunday I never 
see his face, and at the same time he is able to walk, able 
to attend to his business? That man is a liar, and all 
the favor I ask of you today is when you find him* on the 
street, tell him his pastor says he is a liar, and tells him 
on the authority of God's Holy Word. A man has no 
right to call himself a child of God and then have no love 
for God's eternal truth. And we know this from our own 
experience. I need only to appeal to the Christian people 
of this congregation to find out the decision. That man 
who loves Jesus, who loves his salvation through Jesus 
Christ, who enjoys the communion of the Holy Spirit, 
that man would no more think of sitting at home on a 
beautiful Sunday like this, or running out of Sunday 
School and going home when he might remain here, any 
more than a hungry, healthy man, would refuse to sit 
down and enjoy his Sunday dinner. A man physicallT^ 
well wants to eat, and a man spiritually well wants to 
feed on God's eternal truth. How full the world is of 
professed Christians who are liars on the very face of the 
book that gives the record of names that says, I am a 
Christian, and in all their acts they are lying against God 
and heaven. 

IV. A fourth liar is one who says that God is not 
love. NoAV and then we find people who picture God as 
a God of wrath. It is not onlv a fact that God is 



FIRST SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 505 

Almighty, that He is Omniscient, that He is Omnipresent, 
bat it is a fact that God is love. ''He that loveth not, 
knoweth not God; for God is love. . . . And we have 
known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is 
love; and he that dAvelleth in love dwelleth in God, and 
God in him." Wherever we look in nature we see the 
love of God. Wherever we see a flower we see that none 
but a loving God could have made such beautiful flowers. 
We often hear people say that Christians should not 
enjoy luxuries. If it were not our privilege to eujoy lux- 
uries, surely God would never have made the thousands 
of beautiful things that are growing all around us. We 
could live on bread and water; we could live without the 
beautiful roses; we could live without all this variety of 
tilings that groAv and walk around us ; we could live with- 
out all these beautiful birds. All nature is filled with the 
voice of the love of God to man, and the poor man has the 
privilege of enjoying the love of God as well as the rich. 
Here is a man Avorth a hundred thousand dollars ; he buys 
a lot and builds a beautiful house, and he enjoys what 
God has given him. Eight beside him lives a poor man, 
not worth a thousand dollars ; he not only enjoys his little 
yard and his home, but he enjoys his neighbor's home 
and all the world beside. It is all his. God gave it to 
him in nature. Beautiful love of God! Pictures of His 
works. 

Not only is God a loving God, as we see in all nature, 
but He is a loving God as Ave see in His Word. There is 
a Spirit of loA^e that breathes throughout this Book from 
the first chapter of Genesis to the last of Revelation, the 
whole plan of God to create man in His own image, and 
Avhen he had fallen, to promise him a Redeemer, and sent 
forth that Redeemer as a Good Shepherd to lay down His 
life for the sheep; the whole plan of the Father and the 
Son sending us the Comforter, the Holy Spirit to fight 
Avith us and to remind us of all things the Son had taught ; 
this great missionary plea that goes throughout the Word 
of God, to go into all the world and make disciples of all 
nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and 
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; this call of the Holy 



506 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

Spirit : Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy 
laden, and I will give you rest; this wooing love from 
the cross, God so loved the world that He gave His only 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not 
perish but have everlasting life; this loving call from the 
mouth of God, "Him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise 
cast out," tell us that God is love. 

And this loving God of ours can be trusted. And 
any man who says that God is not love on account of the 
Judgment Day, or on account of the lost condition of those 
who reject Him, is a liar and he knows it. I know there 
are many things in this Avorld hard for us to describe. If 
I were to ask an unborn babe to describe the beauty of 
this world, it simply could not do it; and when I ask the 
natural man of this world to describe the beauty of 
heaven, it simply is impossible, and yet we can all see 
the love of God in His Providence. Sometimes we seem 
to think that God is against us; sometimes we seem to 
think that instead of God being a God of love, He is a 
God of hatred; sometimes we seem to think He is a God 
who is fighting us instead of helping us along, but it is 
only because we are unborn babes in the greatness of 
God's plans. Oh, if we could see God's Providence as we 
some time shall see it! Then we would look back and 
thank God for every obstacle in our way, for every afflic- 
tion that came upon us. For you and I need every now 
and then to be troubled. There must something come in 
the way to make us feel that no difference how high we 
go, we must come down. A friend of mine a few years ago 
ran down to the platform for the purpose of flagging the 
train. It T\as his object to reach the city at a certain 
hour, and before he got to the platform the train rushed 
by. With anger and wratli in his heart he went back, 
feeling that God was against him. The next morning 
when he read that just half a mile below that little depot 
that train plunged into the river and killed nearly all the 
passengers, he saw that the loving hand of Providence 
kept him from making that train. The other night in the 
city of Cleveland, a man tried his best to make the 
Twentieth Century flier, but just missed it. How he 



FIRST SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 507 

grumbled and murmured against the Providence of God, 
but when he read the next day how those men were hurled 
into eternity, he saw the loving Hand that kept him back. 
And so in the future, when our path of life is over, and 
we review that sad day of our afiliction, when we smarted 
under the hand of God, then it is that God will show us 
why it was and how it was ; and in heaven and all eternity 
we will not thank Him half so much for those days of joy 
and pleasure on earth as we will for those days of afflic- 
tion, which w^ere the Providence of the God of love. 

V. Who is a liar? That man is a liar who professes 
to be a child of God and yet claims that he never feared 
the Judgment. ^^Herein is our love made perfect, that we 
may have boldness in the day of Judgment ; because as 
He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; 
but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath tor- 
ment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We 
love Him because He first loved us." The Judgment will 
be a day of dread, as Ave sing in that good old hymn. The 
Judgment will be a day that will make men tremble, and 
will make some cry out, O ye mountains! fall on us, and 
ye hills cover us! And yet there is a possibility for men 
who will tremble at the Judgment Day to get so entirely rid 
of all fear that they can look forward to that day with per- 
fect pleasure; that they may look forward to that day with 
boldness, because they shall stand before the Judge with 
the Judge's own garment of righteousness on him, and 
when Ave have reached the perfection of that love which 
it is God's will to give us, then we shall look forward 
with love and joy to that great day. I do not know that 
any man has ever been able to picture these three verses 
of the Bible more lucidly with few words, than the great 
Bengel. Bengel said of man and of the development of 
this love, that there are just four stages : The first is no 
fear and no love. The second is fear and no love. The 
third is fear and love. And the fourth is no fear and 
love. You see the growth. There is a time in some men's 
lives when they have absolutely no fear of the Judgment 
and no love in their hearts. The natural man has no love 
to God and before he thinks at all about the future he 



508 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

has no fear, and he goes through life like the blind ox 
that goes to the slaughter. Then there comes another 
period of life when he begins to feel his sins, when he 
begins to tremble; when his only cry is, O, what shall I 
do ? There is fear and no love. Then he begins to hear of 
Christ, of the loving Savior; then he still has fear, and 
love, and that is the third stage. Then he grows. Less 
fear every day, more love every day, and at last he reaches 
the stage in life when fear is gone and love is perfect, and 
he cries out now, No fear and all love. ^'Herein is our 
love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day 
of Judgment ; because as He is, so are we in this world. 
There is no fear in love ; but perfect love casteth out fear ; 
because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made 
perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us.-' 
Therefore, a man that says he loved God first is a liar. 
It is not true. God loved us first, and with His love we 
learned to love Him and to love our fellOAvmen. The man 
that says he can go through these stages and never have 
any fear of the Judgment at all, is a liar. If you are a 
Christian today there have been times in your life when 
you said to yourself. If the Judgment would come now, 
what would I do? And yet it is possible for us to have 
perfect calm in the midst of seeming fear. As an illustra- 
tion, the wife of a British navy officer went with her hus- 
band on a voyage to India. In mid-ocean a terrible storm 
arose. The officer was calm but his wife was very much 
frightened and rebuked him for his indifference. He 
went out and soon came back into the room again with 
uplifted dagger and seemingly aimed at her bosom. She 
smiled, and he asked her for an explanation. She replied, 
"That dagger is not dangerous in 3^our hands." "Nor is 
this storm," said he, "in my Father's hand." Thus per- 
fect love casteth out fear. 

VI. There is another liar mentioned in this text, 
and that is the one who claims to be a Christian and hates 
his brother. "If a man say, I love God, and hateth his 
brother, he is a liar; for he that loveth not his brother 
whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath 
not seen? And this commandment have we from Him, 



FIRST SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 509^ 

That he who loveth God love his brother also." Mj dear 
friends, it is simply impossible for a man to be a Chris- 
tian and have hatred in his heart toward his fellow Chris- 
tians. I would not speak of this so much as I do, if I 
did not feel in my own heart and see with my own eyes 
that there is so much hatred and so much conflict between 
those who profess to be children of God. A man that 
hateth his brother is a murderer. How can a man hate 
a Christian and be a child of God? If God is love and you 
have not seen Him, how can you love Him and hate 
your brother whom 3^ou have seen? This may seem like a 
small argument to some people, but it is a mighty argu- 
ment. The truth of it is that you only love that best which 
you have seen. Did you ever try to love some man 
that you never saw? Did you ever tr}^ to love some woman 
that 3^ou never saw? Is there any human being on earth 
that you dearly love and have never beheld with your 
eyes? Even the blind man has seen his mother with a 
A^ision that cannot be expressed with words. If it is a 
fact that the objects which we do love in this world are 
visible objects, it is also a fact that God is love and we 
shall love Him, and He is invisible. We talk about our 
love for the invisible God, but hoAv can we love the invis- 
ible God if Ave hate His A^sible children? If my children 
were to come into your home, and you had seen my child 
but had never seen me, and you actually hated my child, 
I am sure you would not have very much love for her 
father, whom you never saw. How can you love me whom 
you never saw^ if you hate my children whom you have 
seen? And yet there are professed Christians in this 
world that hate this man and hate this woman ; will not 
speak to this man and Avill not speak to this woman ; will 
not shake hands with this man nor Avith this woman, and 
at the same time talk about their love to God. They are 
liars — downright liars, and in their hearts they know it. 
And, my friends, love does not simply consist in letting 
people alone and standing back and letting them run 
after you. I hear this voice: "I liaA^e no particular 
hatred toAvard Mr. So-and-so, but I just simply let him 
alone; I ncA^er go after him, speak to him, shake hands 



510 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

with him ; never take a step to meet him/' Let me ask you 
a question, professed Christian. Have you ever gone three 
steps to shake hands with your pastor? I know some 
have gone miles, but have you done it? Have you ever 
taken one step to go to that very neighbor to whom you 
have not talked for a year? Have you ever gone to him and 
said, This is no way to live, let us shake hands and be 
neighborly, and love each other? Just as sure as any per- 
son on earth, I do not care who he is, professes to be a 
child of God, but has no love for this person or that, and 
is not willing to take the step to speak to him and shake 
hands with him and show his love, just so sure that man 
is a liar, and he knows it, and God knows it. 

"And this commandment have we from Him, That 
he who loveth God, love his brother also." It is a com- 
mandment from heaven. There is no other way to live. 
And Oh, may God the Holy Spirit teach us all this morn- 
ing to cultivate a love for truth as we never have before. 
Let us no more be liars. Let us be so true to our neigh- 
bors, to our enemies, to our best friends, that if we find 
that they say one thing that is not exactly true, we will 
tell them. Stop your lying. We all need help. There is 
no one sin in this world any greater than lying. If a 
man commits adultery we put him down as low, and he is 
low, but how many people realize that he is just as high 
as the man that tells an untruth. The sin of breaking 
one commandment is just as great as the other. Therefore 
let us aim, not only to keep one commandment, but to 
keep them all, not because we expect God to save us 
therefor, but because He has saved us, because He has 
redeemed us and accepted us in the hands of love and 
now wants us to walk in His footsteps and to live as 
children of love. If Jesus Christ were to stand here this 
morning and say one word that you knew was not exactly 
the truth, you would not take Him as your Savior, and 
yet you and I are to be children of truth. Let us not be 
liars, but be the children of Him whom we cannot see, 
and love all His children whom we do see, and therefore, 
be children of the truth. Amen. 



FIRST SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 511 



PRAYER. 

O Father in heaven, we thank Thee for this, another privilege of 
proclaiming Thy everlasting truth to a congregation of those who are 
striving to come to Thee, and therefore want the plain truth as it is 
recorded in Thy Word. O Father in heaven, do Thou send Thy Holy 
Spirit into our hearts and souls this morning with Thy great message, 
and help each one of us to ask ourselves the question. Am I a child of 
truth or a child of error? Am I one who loves the truth, or am I one 
who loves falsehood and practices those things that are loved by Satan? 
We ask Thee now that Thou wilt help us this morning to take this 
message home with us and to keep it, and to keep it for the special 
purpose of living just as near the Master as we possibly, can, and may 
we pray Thee this day to give us such a love for those who hate us, 
such a love for those who despitefully use us, such a love for those who 
would injure us if they could, that we ma}^ pray for them and reach 
out our hands to do them a kindness, to walk in Thy ways and to be 
loved and to love our Father in heaven. Thou knowest how many 
people in this world have gone to destruction, not only because they 
have not recognized Thy love to them, but because they have experi- 
enced so little love on the part of their fellowmen. Do Thou help us 
to look out and around us ever}^ day that we may find some place to do 
a little act of kindness to some one, which shall show that we are not 
void of that love of Him who first loved us. Pour Thy love now into 
our hearts and souls, while we pray Thine own prayer which Thou hast 
taught us : 

Our Father who art in heaven ; Hallowed be Thy name ; Thy 
kingdom come ; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven ; Give 
us this day our daily bread ; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us ; And lead us not into temptation ; 
But deliver us from evil; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



SECOND SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 

May One Be Sure of His Salvation? 

1 John 3 :13-18. 

l^l^ARVEL not, my brethren, if the world hate you. We know that 
jy I we have passed from death unto life, because we love the 
/ brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. 

Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer, and ye know that no mur- 
derer hath eternal life abiding in him. Hereby perceive we the love of 
God, because He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down 
our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth 
his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from 
him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us 
not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth: 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



JBeloved in Christ: 

If this very evening death should come to you, would 
you be saved or lost? That is the question. There are 
only four or five answers possible to that question. Some 
might positively say No, we would not; and O God pity 
the man that is not saved right now, because tomorrow 
he may be in eternity. Surely it is a woeful mistake to 
put off from day to day what God said you should do 
first. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His 
righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto 
you." 

Another answer to that question might be, We have 
not thought of the matter at all, and I believe that would 
be the answer of a large majority of people who are not 
saved today. They are simply living on from day to 
day and giving the matter no thought whatever. And Oh, 
what a condition of affairs that is for a man, just to live 

512 



SECOND SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 513 

on from day to day, with brain to think, with immortal 
souls to save, worth more than all the world and yet 
never paying attention to them. May God help you to 
think and ask yourselves the question, Am I saved, or 
am I lost? 

Another answer might be, I hope so; I am trying 
to live a good life. I suppose there are a great many 
people in this day of universal religion without any Christ 
in it who are taught the old doctrine of the Pharisees to 
make themselves better instead of trusting in the blood 
of Christ, and possibly hundreds and hundreds of honest 
men and women really think that all they need to do is 
just to live about as good a life as the average Chris- 
tian, and when they come to die they will be all right, 
and they will go right to heaven. That is one of the most 
remarkable doctrines ever published to the world. It is 
the doctrine of Satan and not of God. The truth of God's 
Word is that none are righteous, no not one, your own 
righteousness availeth nothing. The Word of God says. 
Our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. You might just 
as well sit here tonight clothed in filthy old rags and 
tell me you are clean as to tell me you are going to be 
saved by goodness of your own. If you can be saved by 
your goodness, I can by mine, and if I can, every other 
man can. Then the coming of the Savior would all be 
useless; His dying on Calvary would not have been 
necessary; God's plan would all be in vain. Oh, do not 
deceive yourselves. You never can be saved by your own 
righteousness. 

Another answer to the question, Are you saved? might 
be this : No one can tell. I occasionally meet with people 
who say that this matter of salvation is not a certainty; 
Ave cannot know; we may think we are saved and may 
find out after all that we are lost. It is true that some 
people may think that, but when you say that no man can 
know whether he is saved or not, that is not true. That 
is not Protestantism; that is Catholicism. There are a 
great many Koman Catholics who imagine that men can 
not know in this world that they are saved, therefore they 

33 



514 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

must have Purgatory, but I want to say that God's Word 
never shows a third place. "Enter ye in at the straight 
gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way, that 
leadeth to destruction" — not Purgatory — "and many 
there be which go in thereat. Because straight is the gate, 
and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life'- — not 
Purgatory — "and few there be that find it." As the tree 
falleth there it lieth. He that is filthy, let him be filthy 
still. The answer is not correct that no man can know 
in this world. 

There is only one other ansAA er to my question, Are 
you saved now? and that answer can be. Yes. Positively 
Yes. A man can just as well know that he is saved as 
he can know he is living to-day. And, therefore, I put the 
question tonight: 

MAY ONE BE SURE OF HIS SALVATION? 

The answer that John gives is very positive. "We 
know that we have passed from death unto life, because 
we love the brethren." It was no uncertainty with John. 
When you read these epistles through you find verse after 
verse positively stating "I know" and "We know," We 
know this, and we know that. "We have known and be- 
lieve the love that God hath to us." If there is any one 
thing that is detrimental to Christianity today, it is this 
uncertainty of men going through life not knowing 
whether they are saved or not, not knowing whether they 
are lost or not. If this very hour you should die, — and 
the time is coming when you will die, — you want to 
knoAv before it is too late that you are saved ; and when I 
put the question tonight. Can one know that he is saved? 
I answer three different times, Yes. Yes. Yes. 

I. Yes, just as he can know the world's hatred. 
"Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you." 

1. It is not hard for a man to know that Jesus 
Christ was hated. If you study the life of Jesus Christ 
you will find He was hated on all sides. The Pharisees 
hated Him. The Sadducees hated Him. The only people 
that loved Christ were the people that were willing to 



SECOND SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 515 

be saved. The whole world hated Him, and as a result 
gave Him the worst mock trial ever held on earth; as a 
result they took Him and mistreated Him as no other one 
has ever been mistreated. It is bad enough to read of 
the awful things done during the inquisition. When we 
read of how men were put into boxes filled with sharp 
spikes that went into their bodies inch by inch until they 
were dead; when we read of how men were thrown into 
dungeons to starve and decay, it was awful. But when 
men die they are only dying for themselves; they are 
only bearing their own punishment; but when Jesus 
Christ died on Calvary, He did not bear His sins. He 
bore your sins and mine; and not only yours and mine, 
but He bore the sins of all the world, and those sins for 
all eternity. Therefore, if you can, just imagine for a 
moment, the pain of all eternity summed up and thrown 
into the heart of Jesus Christ, then you will understand 
what He had to endure on Calvary's hill. And who made 
Him suffer? The world! 

2. We not only know the world hated Christ, but it 
hated the apostles. Jesus Christ prophesied that these 
apostles would have to suffer. Jesus Christ told Peter 
he would have to be crucified. He told the apostles that 
they would all have to die for Him ; and, my dear friends, 
while it is true that one of the twelve died a natural 
death, it is also true that he suffered a hundred deaths 
by being put down on the Isle of Patmos. Imagine him 
almost one hundred years old, put out upon the rock on 
the Isle of Patmos, to suffer day and night, until he was 
old enough to bring home and carry to his church to say 
once more before he died: "Little children, love one 
another.'' If Matthew, and Mark, and Luke, and Paul, all 
had to die for Christ, what made them die? The world 
hated them! 

Not only is it true that the world hated the disciples, 
but the world hated the one hundred and eighty-five mil- 
lions of people that had to die in the first three centuries 
of the Christian era. All over the civilized world the 
faithful brethren had to die for Christ's sake, because the 
world hated Jesus and His followers. 



516 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

3. How about the Christians to-day? Does the 
world love the true Christian? Never did, and never will! 
It isn't liard to knoAV that. One of the greatest detri- 
ments to the Christian Church to-day is the fact that the 
Church is so loved by the world. Ask the average Chris- 
tian, Do you love your brethren in the Church, and he says, 
Oh, yes, I love this man, and that man; here is one I 
do not love so very much, but as a rule I can say I love 
this congregation. How often I hear my own congrega- 
tion complimented. Wherever I go and they know the 
First Lutheran Church they say, You have a fine con- 
gregation there; you have a pleasant people, and it does 
me good to hear it; and yet sometimes it does not do me 
so much good. I am very glad to hear that a Christian 
congregation is a good congregation, but when I meet a 
man of the world and he says. You have such fine people 
in your church, I begin to ask myself the question, What 
is the trouble? The world never said Jesus was fine. The 
world never said the disciples and the apostles were fine. 
Whenever the world gets hold of an Apostle Peter it nails 
him to the cross. When I meet people who say, your peo- 
ple are just the finest people, I can almost hear the devil 
say, I just love some of your people; they are so dear to 
me. Have you got this man on your church record? Yes. 
Seems to me I can hear the devil say, I have got him on 
mine, too. I have got him ! Well, but I say, these people 
come to church once in a while. Y^es, I cannot keep every- 
body busy ; I let them go once in a while, but when I want 
them, I have got them. There is something wrong! There 
is something wrong with the average preacher; there 
is something wrong with the average man in the pew. 
Just as sure as the man in the pew is loved by the world, 
just so sure he is not a saved man, or this Book is not 
true. That is the trouble with Christianity to-day. We are 
all good Christians on Sunday morning and Sunday even- 
ing when there is no other place to go, but when the world 
says on Monday, and on Tuesday, and on Thursday even- 
ing, I have got something for you to do, — no room now 
in the church for them. Would to God that the world 
did not love the preachers as much as it does! Would 



SECOND SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 517 

to God that the world did not love so many Sunday School 
teachers as it does ! Would to God the world did not love 
so many churches as it does ! It simply goes to prove, not 
that the world is becoming more churchly, but that the 
Church is becoming so worldly, that the world actually 
loves the Church. And Avhat I said is only too true, that 
too many professed Christians have their names on the 
Church book, but the devil has got them too. Too many 
policj' men. Too many policy women. Too many people 
Avho are perfectly Avilling to testify against the world in 
a little Sunday School room twelve feet square, where 
there is no Avorld, but out on the street and on the high- 
way, just as soon as they meet the world, it is, How do 
you do, ^^'orld? Oh, how I love you! I will meet you 
tomorrow night at eight o'clock! A Christianity that 
will not absolutely stand up and fight the world, isn't 
worth the having, and the true Christian will oppose the 
world until the Avorld will oppose the Christian, and you 
know that the same world that crucified Christ, that killed 
the disciples, hates every true Christian on God's earth. 
Are you hated by the world? If not, I would not give a 
fig for your Christianity. "Marvel not, my brethren, if 
the world hate you!" 

II. Can one know that he is saved? Yes, just as he 
can know a living man from a dead one. "We know that 
we have passed from death unto life because we love the 
brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in 
death." 

1. Let me take you out on a little trip for a few 
moments. The first place is to a funeral. We step up to 
a house where there is a sign on the door that the dead 
lies ' within. We enter the door and there we behold a 
casket surrounded by fiowers, and in the casket lies a 
man. We walk up to him and offer him our hand, but he 
does not move; we lay our hand upon his face, but it is 
cold; we try to gaze into his eyes but they are closed; 
we speak, but he gives no answer. He is dead. Around 
that casket sit the mourners and the friends. Not a man 
on earth with a clear mind who does not know the dif- 
ference between the dead man in the casket and the living 



518 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

people around it. Let us leave that home, let us go up 
to the cemetery. We go through the arched gateway, we 
go down the drive; monuments to the right and monu- 
ments to the left; lots to the right and lots to the left; 
small graves and large graves; new additions added to 
the old; the cemetery enlarging; and as we ride along 
through the different avenues and come back, there is 
not a man on earth that does not know that this is the city 
of the dead. We leave the cemetery; we come down one 
street, and drive up another ; we drive across the avenues, 
and up and down the fine residence streets, and through 
the main streets of business, and Avhen we have completed 
our tour, I ask him who went with me, Do you know the 
difference betAveen the two places we have been this after- 
noon, and he would be very ignorant if he did nOt posi- 
tively know the difference between the city of the dead 
and the city of the living, xlnd yet, my dear friends, the 
difference between the man in the casket, dead, and the 
mourners around it; the difference between those that 
lie in yonder graves and you who sit before me tonight, is 
no greater than the difference between a man lost and a 
man saved. John says, "We know that we have passed 
from death unto life." And not only did he say that in 
this text, but there is passage after passage in this first 
epistle of John that says the same thing. In the second 
chapter, in the thirteenth verse he says, "Hereby we know 
that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath 
given us of His Spirit." In the fifth chapter he says, 
"Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born 
of God, and every one that loveth him that begat, loveth 
hiin also that is begotten of him. By this we know that 
we love the children of God, when we love God and keep 
His commandments." 

There was no question in the mind of John as to the 
difference between a man spiritually dead and a man 
spiritually living. When a man is a natural man he has 
no love for the Bible, no love for the Church, no love for 
a sermon; no love for prayer, no love for things good 
and holy, and he is in accordance with his own natural 
dead state, and the death of the world, and the devil 



SECOND SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 519 

and bis own flesh. On the other hand, when he is born 
again, born of water and the Holy Spirit, and has a new- 
life planted in him, then he begins to grow God- ward, 
heavenward ; then he loves the things he formerly hated ; 
loves to hear prayer; loves to hear a sermon; loves to 
live a better life, and whenever he can see a better way 
of doing things than he did before, he will do it, and 
Avherever he can be fed he begins to eat things that will 
give him strength spiritually; and thus from day to day, 
he looks back and says. There is where I was; here is 
where I am today; I want to live onward and upward, 
and sing. My God, whereas I was dead, now I live. The 
difference there is between a man in the casket and the 
man who stands there weeping, the same difference there 
is betT\ een a man in the cemetery, under the ground, and 
a man in the city living for humanity, the same difference 
exists between a man spiritually dead, and a man filled 
with spiritual life. Yes, a man can know whether he is 
a child of God and that he is saved. 

'^Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born 
of God, and every one that loveth him that begat, loveth 
him also that is begotten of him." 

In other words, there are certain things that we must 
do if we are born again and if we love God, and that 
is, we must love our brethren. "Whosoever hatetli his 
brother is a murderer, and ye know that no murderer 
hath eternal life abiding in him. Hereby perceive we the 
love of God, because He laid down His life for us, and 
we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren." If a 
man is spiritually dead he hates his brother and is ready 
for a fight; ready for revenge; ready to do evil to his 
enemy ; but when he once becomes a new man, born from 
on high, he is glad that he can do like Jesus, and say, 
Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. 
That is the new life, and that is the mark by which you 
can know whether you are a saved man or not. If there 
is a man here tonight who does not love his neighbors he 
is not a Christian, he is a murderer in God's sight. The 
very fact that I 'cannot break your lock does not hinder 
me from being a thief. If I have hatred in my heart 



520 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

toward you, it only needs the opportunity, and a little 
more growth, to drive the dagger into your heart. True 
Christianity loves to suffer for Christ's sake. 

III. Can one know that he is saved? Yes, just as 
he can know the difference between a miser and a Chris- 
tian philanthropist. '^But whoso hath this world's goods, 
and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his 
bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of 
God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, 
neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth." 

1. The average man can tell the difference between 
a miser and a philanthropist. Let me draw two pictures, 
one of a miser and the other of a philanthropist. I take 
you first to the city of Genoa. In an attic is a miser who 
has in his satchel twenty-five thousand dollars in gold, 
not one cent of which he uses for bread; his clothing is 
not fit to appear in public. There he sits day and night, 
simply counting over his gold and putting it back in the 
satchel, and one evening he finds himself so weak he 
cannot rise again, and laying his head upon that satchel 
he passes into eternity, and long after that, when his body 
is nearly decayed, he is found, starved to death, with 
his head on his satchel containing twenty-five thousand 
dollars in gold. There you have the picture of a Genoan 
miser. I will take you over to London and show you a 
philanthropist there, who came to that city from our own 
country, a little boy at the age of eleven years, gone away 
from home because his poor widowed mother could not 
support him. He starts out from business to business and 
absolutely refuses to do anything that is dishonorable. 
At last in the city of Baltimore, he finds a partner of his 
own kind, and those two men work together, always aim- 
ing to do good, not for themselves, but for their fellow- 
men. God puts into that boy's hands twelve millions of 
dollars. He goes over to London, finds the poor there, 
and gives them three millions of dollars. He is brought 
home, having died there, and laid down to rest in the little 
village where he was first driven out because he refused 
to sell to other little boys tobacco for them to smoke. 
That town to-day is named after the great man, George 



SECOND SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 521 

Peabody. Ever^^body honors him because he saved his 
country from financial ruin, set up institutions of learn- 
ing, and because he was always looking for an oppor- 
tunity to make some one happy. 

In that same city of London I Avill show you John 
Howard, the great philanthropist, seeing how the poor 
were being trodden down by ungodly men who want every 
dollar they can get, he takes his money and goes out and 
buys lots and builds beautiful little houses, and says to 
every poor man who comes to him, Now, if you will go to 
church every Sunday, hear God's Word; if you will stay 
out of the saloons and ale houses; if you will send your 
children to school; and if you will have family worship, 
and wash, and keep clean, and work for the good of your 
family, I will give you these houses for rent for ten dol- 
lars a year. There you have the picture of a philan- 
thropist. Now there is no man on earth so dumb that he 
does not know the difference between the miser in the 
attic in Genoa, and a George Peabody or a John How^ard, 
and yet the same difference exists between a man who does 
not love Jesus Christ and a man who does. The one who 
is no Christian lives only for selfish purposes and for his 
own glory. I know once in a while we find a man who, 
tho' no Christian, seems to be very benevolent. He also 
gives to the poor, but not for the glory of God ; he wants 
the glory for himself. I do not blame a man even like 
Carnegie for putting up a library in every city if he can 
get the dumb iDublic to pay for half of his monument; I 
do not blame him, but I do like to see men in this world 
who come around and hunt up the poor who cannot help 
themselves, and help them who want to live a good and 
upright, honest life. That is Christianity. I used to 
think that this man Carnegie was a Christian until a few 
weeks ago I met a man who had a personal talk with 
him. He asked him the question why he didn't help 
the Wesleyan University at Delaware. He said, ''I have 
no use for the Wesleyan University." He asked Him 
why he didn't help the Protestant Hospital of Columbus. 
He said, "I don't care for the Protestant Hospital." ^'Why 
did you help to put an organ in the church?" ''Because 



522 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

music is better than preaching.'^ That is the kind of a man 
who is sending out his libraries for his own personal glory, 
because the world can get the poor people to pay for it. 
The difference between a man of God and a man of the 
world is this, the man of the world wants all the 
glory himself; the man of God wants the glory to go 
where it belongs, to God Himself. I say right here to- 
night, there is no man on earth, I do not care where he 
is to be found, that gives all the glory to God, but that 
he is a Christian, and the man that does not give the 
glory to God is no Christian, and there is a difference as 
wide as the difference between the attic in Genoa and 
the great Peabody. The miser always feels poor and 
shows no charity except with his tongue, while the real 
Christian looks for the poor, says little, and helps them, 
for Christ's sake. '^My little children, let us not love in 
word, neither in tongue ; but in deed and in truth." Amen. 



THIRD SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 

The Mighty Hand of God. 

1 Pet. 5:5-11. 

LIKEWISE, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea,, 
all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility, 
for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. 
Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may 
exalt you in due time; casting all your care upon Him, for He careth 
for you. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a 
roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour : whom resist 
steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished 
in your brethren that are in the world. But the God of all grace, who 
hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye 
have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, and settle 
you. To Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth: 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Dearly Beloved in Christ: 

The law of God appeals to the conscience of man as 
being right. It does not take any faith on the part of 
the hearer to know that God was right when He said, 
Honor thy father and thy mother, that it may be well with 
thee and thou mayest live long upon earth. Every father or 
mother in this house this morning realizes that it is right 
that children should obey their parents, that younger 
people should be submissive to the elders, and conse- 
quently we find that the apostle begins this beautiful les- 
son with the words, "Likewise, ye younger, submit your- 
selves unto the elder." What kind of a confusion would 
there be in the world if the parents were asked to obey 
their children? God is right when He asks of you and 

523 



524 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

of me to honor and respect old age and those who are 
placed over us. 

And God is right when He asks of ministers of the 
Gospel that they should be responsible to the great 
Shepherd on high. He says in this same epistle, "Feed 
the flock of God which is among you, taking the over- 
sight thereof, not by constraint but willingly; not for 
filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords 
over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. And 
when the Chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive 
a crown of glory that fadeth not away.'' The duty of the 
minister of the Gospel is plain. On the one hand he is 
to give an account to the Great Shepherd on high, and 
on the other hand he is to feed the flock that food which 
God has given him to feed. How shall the shepherd feed 
his flock when he cannot find them? How shall the man 
of God feed his people Avhen they loaf around at home 
and do not go to church? How shall the under shepherd 
feed his fiock when thej are scattered out among the 
wolves of the world? I have always maintained, I main- 
tain today, and will maintain until I die that a. Chris- 
tian will hear God's Word unless he cannot, and the re- 
sponsibility is right that every man of God must feel 
that if he is to feed his flock, the flock must be where they 
can be fed; and on the great Judgment Day we look to 
the Chief Shepherd for the crown of eternal life because 
we have been true to His Word and trusted in that Shep- 
herd. 

Not only ought Ave to find children submissive to 
their parents, and congregations to the Great Shepherd 
on high, and to His under-shepherds when they preach 
God's eternal truth, but it becomes the duty of all of us 
to be submissive to others, and especially to our God. 
"Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed 
with humility, for God resisteth the proud and giveth 
grace to the humble." It becomes our duty to become 
submissive to the hand of Almighty God. We are told in 
this epistle that we must humble ourselves under the 
mighty hand of God. Oh, that we would all realize this 
morninij what hand there is over us, the hand of Him 



THIRD SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 525 

who made the heavens and the earth. I desire to call 
TOur attention then, very briefly, to 

THE MIGHTY HAND OF GOD. 

And may the Holy Spirit hel^) you to feel the power 
of that hand on your souls this mornint>-. The mighty 
hand of God against us: over ns; under us: In us and 
with lis. 

I. Do you realize this morning that tlie mighty hand 
of God is against all the proud? ''For God resist eth the 
proud and givetli grace to the huuible." 

1. There never was a time when pride was not an 
evil. The first rebellion we have gf pride is when that 
angel was not willing any more to be submissive to the 
King of kings and Lord of lords, but he was filled with 
pride and endeavored to rule, and the consequence was 
that that angel became a devil and is a devil jet. When- 
ever an angel of God resists the Almighty God on account 
of pride, he becomes a devil, and every time that a man is 
filled with pride, he is filled with that which is devilish. 

2. The Almighty Hand was not only against the 
pride of angels, but it was against the pride of all men in 
the past. It was pride in Pharaoh's heart that made him 
ruin his country. It was pride in Saul's heart that caused 
his fall. It was pride in the heart of a Herod that made 
him fall. It was pride in the heart of a Judas that kept 
him from repenting. TMierever you can show me a man 
that thinks he is better than others, that man is stoutly 
going against the hand of the Almighty God. 

3. Why should any one think himself better than 
Ms neighbor? Why should you think that you are far 
above all humanity? Is that not a pride that comes from 
the angel that resisted God and became a devil? And isn't 
that the spirit that is making you devilish, and that is 
going to cause your fall? Every man that falls, first 
rises in his pride and then comes down, possibly never to 
rise again. Oh, if we would only stop and think what we 
are, and where we came from and what we have done, and 
what we have thought, and Avhat we have said, we would 



526 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

all get down in true humility, and stop fighting against 
the mighty hand of God. 

II. Not only is this mighty hand of God against all 
those filled with pride, but this same Hand is over those 
who are truly humble. ^^Humble yourselves, therefore 
under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in 
due time." 

1. Look at humble Joseph, how God raised him up and 
put him on the throne of Egypt! Look at humble John,. 
hoAv God raised him up and made him the mighty apostle 
that proclaimed the Gospel to the world until he was 
almost a century old! Look at the humble Luther, how 
God used him to give liberty to the world ! There is noth- 
ing greater in all the world than true humility, and true 
humility consists in this, that we consider ourselves poor, 
lost, condemned sinners, not worthy of the grace and the 
mercy which God has bestowed upon us from day to day, 
always feeling in our own hearts that when people say 
we are sinners, that they do not understand half the depth 
to which we ought to have sunk long ago if we had been 
left to ourselves. Now when we realize that we are poor, 
lost condemned sinners, and that we are saved alone by 
the grace of our God, then it is that we realize that this- 
great and mighty hand of God is over us and lifting us up. 

How often the Savior taught His disciples not to 
want to sit at the head of the table, but to be willing to 
go down to the foot. How often He showed them by His 
own example that there is no work in the world too low 
for us to do. If the hand of the Almighty God did not 
think it too humble on His part to wash the dust off of 
His disciples' feet, why should you and I consider any 
work in this world that is to be done, too low for us to 
do? Oh, God have mercy on the man that is too proud 
to get his fingers soiled with the soil of this world! God 
pity the man that is ashamed of callous hands! God 
pitj^ the man that is ashamed to reach out and help the 
poor and lift them up! Let us be humble and have the 
mighty hand- of God over us, and that Hand will lift us 
up in due time. 

III. Not only is it true that the mighty hand of 



THIRD SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 527 

God is against the proud, and over the humble, but it is 
just as true that this mighty hand of God is under all 
the troubles of His children. ^'Casting all your care upon 
Him, for He careth for you." 

I wish I could just get every one in this house to take 
the thought of that verse home with him, if he does not 
remember another thing, and he would feel amply repaid 
for coming here today. Hoav many trials and troubles 
there are all over this world ! Eveiy home has its special 
trouble, one in this line and one in that, and the worst 
trouble of all is that nine times out of ten we are troub- 
ling ourselves about things that are no trouble at all. 
There are some things in this world that we absolutely 
cannot help. Now what common sense is there in troub- 
ling ourselves about those things? There are some things 
in this world that we can help. Then what common sense 
is there in sitting down and troubling ourselves? Why 
not get up and help them? Look at the little children in 
our homes. They put us to shame. Look at these little 
orphans as they sit here to my right. Are they moaning 
and crying because they have nothing to eat and nothing to 
wear? It never occurs to them. They know that they 
are going to get their three meals a day. They know they 
have people placed over them who are going to see that 
they have clothing to wear, and they are as happy as 
little birds, and their parents are in eternity; and yet 
here we are with our Father, with His mighty hand right 
under us, saying. Lay your troubles right on My hand 
and I will carry them, and instead of letting God have our 
troubles we want them ourselves and then cry because 
we have them. The story is told as a legend that one 
time the people were invited to lay all their troubles on a 
pile. Then they came, every man with his trouble, and 
«very woman with hers, and threw them all on a pile until 
it became a mountain; and then, when they were all on 
that pile, God said to them, Now run and get any trouble 
you want — and each one picked out his own. You are 
not so dissatisfied with your trouble as you think you are ; 
you love it, and there are hundreds of people weeping and 
<:rying, that would absolutely not know what to do if they 



528 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

hadn-t something to cry about. Thej are looking- for 
trouble and they are finding it. 

God is good. We all know that. God is Omniscient. 
He knows all about our affairs. God is King. He rules 
well. God never made any mistakes in the past. Study 
the history of people in ancient times, in deep trouble, 
and see if God did not lead them just exactly right. If 
God is good, and knows all about our troubles, and never 
makes any mistakes, why not just let His hand be under 
us and bear our troubles? I ask you today, in the name 
of God, to take that trouble of yours and lay it right on 
His might}^ hand, casting all your care upon Him, for 
He careth for you. 

The mighty hand of God is under you. Oh, if we had 
to go through some things that other men have gone 
through, we might not only understand the better what 
troubles are, but how to get rid of them. If I were to 
ask you to read Fox's book of Martyrs, and you would do 
it, you would be the happiest man on earth seeing how 
many troubles you have escaped. I have here the picture 
of a man. Dr. Taylor, who in 1555, was one who preached 
in the little town that first heard the Gospel in England. 
This man had won thousands of people to the kingdom of 
God. The great Eoman persecution came. The Bishop 
arrested him, took him to London, had him tried and 
condemned with a trial that was no better than that of 
Jesus Christ. Then he came back to the town of Hadley 
to be executed. He met his wife and children in the road, 
and said to his boy, "Lead a Godly life, hating all sin, 
and be a mighty man of God, for your father has got to 
die.-' He said to his little daughter, Elizabeth, "Do not 
cry, but be a mighty mother of God, and bring children 
into the Avorld that may preach the Gospel for which your 
father is going to die." He said to his wife, "Dear wife, 
you are young yet. Do not remain single. Get married. 
Pray for a son to preach the Gospel, for your husband has 
got to die." They all knelt in prayer. He started out 
into the square where they hanged him up to a post, and be- 
fore the pitch was burning, amidst a song of praise to God, 
who had His mightv hand under him, his head was 



THIRD SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 529 

knocked off and fell down, and he passed into eternity. 
That man never bothered himself about trouble. He just 
laid his family and himself into the hand of the Almighty 
God, and God held them all. 

IV. This mighty hand of God is not only against the 
proud, hot only over the humble, and under all our 
troubles, but is in those faithful ones who fight the devil. 
'^Be sober, be vigilant, for your adversary, the devil, as a 
roaring lion walketh about, seeking Avhom he may devour, 
whom resist steadfast in the faith." 

How can we resist him steadfast in the faith, unless 
Ave have the power of the Almighty God in us? There are 
some people in the present day who read such ungodly 
editorials as we have had in some of our papers through- 
^..ut the ijast week, who are trying to persuade themselves 
that these preachers are all hypocrites, and that the 
Church of God does not know what it is doing, and that 
the old story of heaven and hell is all 'false ; that there is 
no devil; that we have been mislead; and the thing to do 
is to trample upon the law, and go and sow our wild oats, 
and do as we please, and be broad minded. We are living 
in a day when hundreds and thousands of people, pupils 
of this old devil, himself, are taught to believe that just 
as soon as you do whatever you please, and follow your 
own lusts and inclinations, that then you become broad. 
Sometimes Ave get hold of meat that isn't broad; it is 
quite square, and you eat it, and it nourishes you; and 
then sometimes you get hold of a slice of dried beef so 
broad and there is nothing in it. There are some people 
in this world actually getting so broad that you can see 
through them. There is absolutely no thinking done any 
more; they are running wild, saying there is no Satan, 
v.'hen Satan has got them in his clutches; saying there is 
no Satan, when Satan is moving them to transgress every 
law that is civil and Divine, and the time has come that 
we must recognize that the same God that reigned five 
thousand years ago, is reigning today; that the same old 
devil that went about like a roaring lion seeking whom 
he might devour, in the days of the crucifixion of Christ, 

34 



530 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

is the same old Satan that these days is trying to per- 
suade men that their souls are saved no difference whether 
they have a Savior or not; that they can live as they 
please and die as they please, and after a while they will 
pass into heaven, just as sure as they reject everything 
holy. 

We note not only the mighty hand of God over us 
and with power under us when we are in trouble, but we 
need the mighty hand of God in us to resist the devil 
and all his works and ways. You need this Word of God 
in you, and then you have God's hand in you. You need 
the sacraments, and then you have God's hand of grace 
given to you. You need the grand old Church that is 
built upon the Rock of Ages, in order that your mind may 
be enlightened by the Holy Spirit. I ask you, therefore, 
to have the mighty hand of God in you ; have a faith that 
will not waver; stand upon the mighty Eock of God and 
fight every evil, no difference what it may be. We have 
too many policy men in these days, men that are afraid 
they might say or do something that might not suit this 
one or that one. How many of our best men are willing 
to stand up today and say the laws of our country and 
the laws of God shall be enforced? The worst of all is 
we have so many, among the good lawyers of our country, 
of these poor little pettifoggers, that are willing to stand 
up and help any man to evade the very laws they take an 
oath to defend. What we want, therefore, in the pres- 
ent day, are mighty men of God, men that have the hand 
of God in them, and become a power, and find out the 
truth and stand for it under all circumstances. 

V. We need the mighty hand of God with us step 
by step, through fires to glory. "But the God of all grace, 
who hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ 
Jesus, after that ye have suffered awhile, make you per- 
fect, stablish, strengthen, and settle you." 

We have a great many people in the present day who 
want to be good Christians, but they want to go on kind 
of excursion rates ; they want to be good Christians on 
easy terms; they w^ant to lounge around on Sunday and 
sleep, and grow in grace; they are willing to fight their 



THIRD SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 531 

battles around behind the wall where nobody hears them; 
they are never ready to stand forth and pass through the 
fires. The plan of God in nature as well as in grace has 
always been that in order to get the gold you must have 
the dross burned off. If you will pass through the country 
in the present day and show me a field of nice wheat, I 
will show you a field that was plowed and harrowed first. 
If you will show me a beautiful piece of jewelry, I will 
show you something that has passed through the fire or 
under the file. No difference hoAV rusty a piece of iron 
is, it can only be brightened by passing under the file or 
something that will grind the rust off. So in all nature 
you discover that fire purifies. And thus it is with grace. 
"But the God of all grace, Avho hath called us unto His 
eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered 
aw^hile, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen and settle 
you.'' 

You are willing to have the God of glory, the God of 
all grace, come to you and say. You are forgiven, poor 
sinner; you are willing to have Him throw the gates of 
heaven open and say. Now come in and enjoy this heavenly 
perfection forever and ever, but you are not willing to 
pass through the fires a w^hile. We have here four beauti- 
ful diamonds, but they are all surrounded by a dark foil 
of suffering before we come to the jewel itself. After 
that ye have suffered awhile, then may this God of grace 
make you perfect, stablish, strengthen and settle you. 

1. We need perfection. There is not a person on 
earth that does not feel that some time or other he ought 
to have a perfection which he has not got this morning. 
Oh, how we are disappointed Avhen we find a good story, 
and the last half of the book is lost! How we are dis- 
appointed when we have a beautiful promise partly given, 
and the latter part is not found! How we are disap- 
pointed when we see a beautiful painting begun, but the 
artist dies before it is finished! Thus it would be in our 
own lives, if we were to simply go on, aiming for perfec- 
tion and finally fail. It is God's plan that the time shall 
come, when you and I shall have passed through fires a 



532 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

little while, to come out in perfection, and only with the 
hand of God with us can we pass through these fires. 

2. Our aim should be perfection, but to reach that 
we need to be established. The rainbow is beautiful to 
behold, but the first thing we know it has vanished; it is 
not established. How much grander the sun, that does 
not refuse to shine year in and year out. How much 
grander the stars that shine every night, and only wait 
for the clouds to disappear, to look down upon you with 
their bright eyes. Thus, my friends, let us have a faith 
that is not wavering like the winds or vanishing like 
the rainbow in the heavens, but let us have a faith that is 
as firm as the sun in the heavens, and as established as 
the earth and the mountains, yes, my friends, as firm as 
the Eock of Ages. Established. You cannot be establish 
and not pass through the fires. God in His Providence 
has arranged that the character that is noblest can look 
back through the fires through which it has passed with 
the hand of God. There are some good men in the world 
that are good just because they have always been sur- 
rounded by good and have never met temptation. There 
are girls in the world who boast of their virtue and of 
their integrity, and look down upon every woman that 
ever made a mistake, just because they have never passed 
through the fires. All honor to the man that once was 
down and has come up through the fires, and today is a 
good man! All honor to Mary Magdalene, kissing the 
feet of her Savior! Why did she kiss His feet? Because 
He forgave so many sins for her that she could kiss those 
feet forever and ever, filled with love, having come out of 
burning fires, she is willing to quench those sparks with 
her tears. Oh, there is a grandeur in life that some people 
know nothing about,' and it is this, that we be established 
and strengthened, having passed through the fires. 

3. Yes, strengthened, l^ou need these battles of life ; 
you need these very fires; but do not try to go through 
them alone. That is the trouble with too many people in 
these days, in their troubles, in their pride, they try to 
fight their OAvn battles, and they are getting into the fires 
deeper nnd deeper, and tliey never will get out unless 



THIRD SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 533 

they go througli them with the great and powerful hand 
of the Almighty God. 

4, After you have suffered awhile, then get settled, 
lie says. " . . . . Make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, 
and settle you.'^ That is one thing we should aim for, 
to be settled — settled in our convictions, settled in our 
faith, settled in our lives. My friends, settle it this even- 
ing that whatever you have to pass through betAveen this 
and death, you are going with the mighty hand of God. 
Settle that. Settle it this evening that as long as God 
gives you a brain to think, and strength in your limbs to 
walk, and health to sit up an hour and listen, that you 
are going to hear God's Word every Sunday, no differ- 
ence what hinders you, for you are going to hold fast to 
the hand of Almighty God. Settle it. If you have tempta- 
tions leading you into wrong, stop playing with those 
temptations; stop giving yourself the opportunity to sin, 
l)ut settle it, and settle it forever that you are going to 
live aright in the sight of the Almighty God. If you 
have not had the correct training in religion, if you are at 
sea as to what you believe, do not think that anything 
is any more important than to take a course of lectures 
and instruction in the plan of salvation. Sit down face 
to face with some man of God in whom you have faith, 
and study and learn, and reason, and believe, until you 
can say, It is settled, and here I stand. I have respect for 
any man that is settled in the things that pertain to 
eternity. Oh, may God help us this morning ! My friends, 
do hold fast to the hand of the Almighty God that is 
against the proud, that is over the humble, that is under 
all our troubles, and put in us to fight the battles against 
the devil, and the world and our own flesh, and with us 
throughout all fires, until we come out on the other side 
gloriously perfect, and established, and settled in the 
perfection when we shall stand in the presence of God 
with His righteousness, and then we can sing with the 
apostle those beautiful words: To Him be glory and 
dominion forever and ever. Amen. 



534 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE, 



PRAYER. 

O God, our heavenly Father, we thank Thee for a mighty hand 
held by Him who knows all things, a mighty hand that holds us, of 
Him who sees all things and makes no mistakes, and is a God of 
grace and of mercy, and is willing to lead us through the fires unto 
an eternal glory. We pray Thee that Thou wilt lead us on a safe path 
so that we may never wander to the right nor to the left; that we may 
be true to Thee and to our fellowmen. We ask Thy rich blessing on 
every one in this house this evening, O God, as with one voice we ask 
Thee to forgive us for all sins that we have ever committed against 
Thee by thought, by word, or by deed. We come to Thee this evening 
and pray Thee for special grace to keep us from repeating the sins of 
the past. May we each day grow nearer to Thee on that path of per- 
fection, through the fires, led by the mighty hand of God. O Father 
in heaven, do Thou now listen to all our prayers as we sum them up 
in that beautiful prayer which Thou hast taught us : 

Our Father who art in heaven; Hallowed be Thy name; Thy 
kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven; Give 
us this day our daily bread ; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us ; And lead us not into temptation ; 
But deliver us from evil; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power^ 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 

The Path to Glory. 

Rom. 8:18-23. 

fOR 1 reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy 
to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. 
For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the mani- 
festation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to 
vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same 
in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the 
bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain 
together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have 
the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, 
waiting for the adoption, to-wit, the redemption of our body. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth: 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved in Christ: 

What are your views of life? There are only three 
views possible. Either you are looking for the glory of 
the lower animal, or you are looking for the glory of fame, 
or you are looking for glory on high. The great mass of 
of people living in sin are only looking for the selfish 
glory of the lower animal. The Apostle Paul has de- 
scribed this class of people so beautifully in the first 
chapter of his epistle to the Romans, that I cannot do 
better than just quote those words : For the invisible 
things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly 
seen, being understood by the things that are made, even 
His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without 
excuse : because that when they knew God they glorified 
Him not as God, neither were thankful, but became 
vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was 

535 



536 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

darkened. Professing themselves to be wise they became 
fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God 
unto an image made like to corruptible man, and to 
birds, and four footed beasts, and creeping things. Where- 
fore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the 
lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies be- 
tween themselves: who changed the truth of God into a 
lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than 
the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.'' How many 
thousands and millions of people to-day are living for 
no other purpose than simply to glorify their own flesh 
and lusts, and that is their glory. Shame on the man 
that lives only for the glory of his selfishness. 

There are others, liowever, whose object in life is 
fame. They will do anything in order to make their own 
names glorious. Before the world, like a Napoleon, they 
are ready to sacrifice all the wealth of France, and make 
the rivers run with blood, like any number of nations in 
history, like many an individual, they are ready to sacri- 
fice Christ in order to lift themselves up and make them- 
selves famous. And so you Avill notice that whenever a 
man wants to step forward in place of the God whom he 
should worship, that man is making glory of his own 
fame, and his life is useless. 

There is a glory, my dear friends, that we should all 
aim for, and that is the glory of our text, the glory of 
those who seek the glory of God. "For I reckon that the 
sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be com- 
pared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." Let 
us, by the help of the Holy Spirit, this morning dwell on 

THE PATH TO GLORY. 

Observe : 



I. Its beginning. 
II. Its ending. 
III. Its winding. 



I. What are the beginnings of the path of glory? 
Let me lead you back this morning to the days before your 



FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 537 

bii'tli. Let me lead you back and show you, first of all, 
the blessings of pre-natal ignorance. 

1. Did you ever stop to think that if you had known 
what you know now, before you were born, that you never 
Avould have been born? One of the greatest crimes of the 
nations of to-day is race suicide; but, my friends, if we 
had known before we Avere born Avhat we learned after- 
wards, it is a question whether every child would not 
luxve committed suicide before it was born. Imagine that 
you had known before you were born that you would 
come into a world perfectly helpless for at least one 
year; imagine that you would have known that you might 
come into the world not wanted; imagine that you could 
have looked forward to the day of your birth, and could 
have seen that you should lie there without teeth to eat, 
without strength to walk, perfectly helpless; sometimes 
when you were sick you would not know what to do ; 
when you would want to be left alone to have mother 
come up and shake you, when you would say, if you 
could. Just let me lie; you could not talk; you could 
not help yourself; you could not defend yourself; in 
that day if some one had said to you, Child, will you be 
born or not? you would have said. If I am to spend a 
Avhole year perfectly helpless, without making my wants 
known, 1 guess I had better not run the risk; let me 
never exist. And yet, my dear friends, it was this pre- 
natal ignorance that was the beginning of the path to 
glory. 

2. Then, born into the world, you found that you 
were in the hands of parental love. Oh, what a lesson 
to us who are living to-day, looking forward, remembering 
that the same love that prepared the love of our parents 
to take care of us when we were born, is the same love 
that is providing for you and for me day after day. 
When we in pre-natal ignorance would have said, We 
dare not be born because we do not know how we can 
live through that year, God said. Never mind, I will take 
care of you. And He did. He gave us parental love. 
Is there anything in the world to be compared with 
mother's love? Not many years ago in our own State 



538 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

of Ohio there was a young boy on the farm plodding day 
and night to keep liis widowed mother and his young 
brother and his few sisters. Oh, what a struggle there 
was on that farm! I have seen it with my own eyes. 
Then the young man sat down at night by the fireside, 
with the light of a tallow candle, and read one book after 
the other, while his younger brother and sisters were 
asleep. There was in that heart a desire to be something. 
There was in that heart a desire to be some day what 
father wanted him to be — but father was in eternity and 
it seemed as tho' there was nothing left to do but for those 
hands to take care of mother and those dear children. 
And then one day the mother said, I will do without new 
clothing for five years. Little girls, what will you do? 
We will wear our old garments out and beg others. And 
young man, what will you do? I will work, mother, just 
twice as hard as I did last year, if you will let brother 
go to college. And brother went to college; and he went 
there with a mother's love that was willing to sacrifice 
everything for that boy. That boy in college washed hi& 
own garments; he cut the hair of others that he might 
get spending money; and that bov went on working day 
after day as janitor of his church, and went on doing 
everything that he possibly could to earn his bread, which 
was scarce enough, while he was plodding through hi& 
mathematics and the languages, and standing at the head 
of his class. That boy went on fighting that battle, back 
of him a mother's love, and when the day finally came for 
graduation, there was sitting at the back of the gallery 
an old mother with garments too poor to be seen in the 
front; the class marched in, and the valedictorian was 
the boy that started from home, sent out by the mother^s 
love; and when he gave that speech which touched the 
hearts of all, and made it possible for him to-day to be 
a mighty man in this great nation, it was only made pos- 
sible by the love of the mother who sat back there in the 
gallery. And that is the love that to-day is in the hearts 
of our parents, taking care of your little children. That 
is the love that is found in fathers and mothers, making it 



FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 539 

possible for pre-natal ignorance and parental care to lead 
us on a path to glory. 

3. Not only do we find that this path to glory begins 
with parental love and pre-natal ignorance, but it begins 
with pre-natal and with prayerful training. We some- 
times seem to think the way to make a man great is just 
to let him go on his careless way, let him shift for him- 
self, and then finally come out a great man. My dear 
friends, ^^\wB yon fill up a Avell with stones, and father 
comes and tells you you have got to pick those stones out 
again, you will discover by the time you are through, that 
the first stone you put in is the last one you will take out. 
And when you have come to the end of life, and you go 
down to the depth of your mind and your own heart, 
and begin to bring out the thoughts one by one, you will 
find that the last thought before you die will be the 
first thought that ever entered your heart. And for that 
reason I make a plea this morning for earnest training 
of children. When Napoleon was asked. What is the 
great need of France? his reply was given in that one 
word, Mothers! And if I were to ask to-day. What is 
the great need of America, I would answer. Fathers and 
mothers. It is the need that the Emperor of Germany 
is proclaiming over his empire; it is the need that the 
President of the United States is hurling over this land; 
it is the need that every minister of the Gospel should 
hurl into the consciences of the people — fathers and 
mothers, children trained in the home as the Apostle Paul 
was trained. What made Paul the mighty man that he 
was? The fact that he received the great training in his 
childhood which he did. And let me therefore call at- 
tention again to this great truth, that if you want to lead 
men to glory on the path which I describe to-day, begin 
in their early youth; pray for them before they are born; 
teach them as soon as they are born; train them every 
day, that they may reach the path of glory that leads to 
the home above. 

II. In order that we may realize more fully the need 
of going on this path, let me shoAV you its ending. 

1. The ending of this path is more glorious than 



540 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

Paradise itself. We have in this text to-day a picture 
of the universe since sin came into the world. "For the 
earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the mani- 
festation of the sons of God. For the creature was made 
subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who 
hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature it- 
self also shall be delivered from the bondage of corrup- 
tion into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For 
we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth 
in pain together until now.'' The Apostle Paul finds that 
when sin came into the world it not only hurt Adam 
and Eve, but it hurt the whole human race ; and not onlj 
the whole human race, but the very soil of the earth; the 
thistle and the thorn came as a curse on account of sin, 
and all nature began to groan, and the animal creation 
had to suffer, and all this on account of sin. And so we 
find that Paradise, that beautiful Paradise was ruined by 
sin. But there is a day coming, my friends, when we shall 
see a glory that will surpass Paradise. Paradise was a 
garden somewhere in this great land where there was no 
sin. Oh, the glory of that day when God saw all things 
which He had made, that they were good! But, my 
friends, there is a glory beyond that, — it is far greater 
than Paradise. There is a home on high where we shall 
be redeemed children of God. There is a home on high 
larger than the Paradise of old. There is a home on high 
where those who were lost have been saved by the bleeding 
of the dying Lamb of God. There is a home on high where 
not only the angels shall praise their heavenly Father, and 
not only the saints who have died in Christ, but where all 
who have come home shall sing the song of redemption, 
and there will be a glory in that home such as was never 
seen in Paradise. There will be a song of praise and love 
that Paradise knew nothing about ; there will be the song 
of tlie cross forever and ever. Oh, the glory of that home 
on high. 

2. It will be not only a greater glory than the glory 
of Paradise, but the glory of that home on high will sur- 
pass all earthly liberty. Oh, what battles Jiave been 
fought for liberty in this land! During the past year 



FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 541 

how much blood has been shed out in the eastern countries 
and how many laid down tlieir lives for the liberty of 
Japan! And in our own land have we forgotten that at 
least four hundred thousand men have spilled their blood 
on our own soil in order that we might this day lift these 
stars and stripes to all nations? They have been saved for 
our country and for a glory that makes us sing of liberty. 
And yet we must not forget that there are nations still in 
bondage. And while it is true that there are nations yet in 
bondage, it is just as true that the whole creation is in 
bondage. Did you ever stop to think of what suffering is 
going on today all over the world on account of sin? Not 
only men have fallen on the battlefield, but horses have 
fallen there. Have you stopped to think of the suffering 
that is going on this very day by men jerking the sharp bits 
in the mouths of horses, cutting their mouths open, all on 
account of sin? Have you stopped to think of the vivisec- 
tion that is taking place on our tables in order that we 
might simply gratify our own desire? All over this world 
the animal creation is groaning. On your very hats today 
are the feathers of birds that have been killed for nothing 
but your Satanic pride. All over this world you find ani- 
mal creation is suffering and groaning, crying out for lib- 
erty. The birds are singing, and we say thej are doing 
nothing but singing the praises of God, when many a poor 
bird is crying out. Liberty, liberty! can I never have thee? 
Many a poor animal is groaning and moaning to-day under 
the lash of the cruel whip, crying out for liberty, — Oh, 
for liberty, "For we know that the whole creation groan- 
eth and travaileth in pain together until now." I tell 
you, my friends, in that liberty on high there is a liberty 
that surpasses the liberty of our country, that surpasses 
the liberty of any country on earth. When the last day 
has come and God the great Judge has made all things 
right, then, then there will be a liberty that cries to the 
throne of God, and that is the liberty of the glory on high. 
3. It is not only a greater liberty than we have ever 
seen or heard of on earth, but the glory on high is greater 
than all Easter mornings on earth put together. If there 
ever was a happy morning in the world, it was the Sunday 



542 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

morning after the first Good Friday; it was when the 
people began to recognize that He who was crucified last 
Friday is risen from the dead. If there ever was a joy it 
was that which began to burn in the hearts of those two 
young men who went to Emmaus, talking with Jesus, and 
asking Him to come in and abide with them. It was the 
joy that was found in that upper room when He with up- 
lifted, wounded hands, said. Peace be unto you! Jt was 
the joy of the ^ve hundred who saw Him after He arose 
from the dead. It was the joy that came on Pentecost 
when the fire fell from heaven, promised by the risen and 
ascended Savior. Oh, glorious Easter morning, when the 
angels of heaven rejoiced over the risen Savior! And 
since that day we have had many a joyful Easter. It is 
the happy day of the year. We rejoice on Christmas be- 
cause Christ was born, but Oh, my friends, if Christ had 
not risen from the dead, what joy would there be on Easter 
morning? And what comfort would there be for 3^ou and 
me if it were not that Christ has risen from the dead, when 
we stand out in yonder cemetery? Just day before yester- 
day I had the extreme pleasure of kneeling on my mothr's 
grave and offering a prayer. That prayer will soon be 
answered. But my joy to kneel on my mother's grave 
was not because my mother is dead, but because she is in 
heaven ; not because her body is in this grave, but because 
Ood will raise her up. And so, my dear friends, there is 
joy in our hearts to-day because of Easter morning; but 
there is a time coming when God shall not simply proclaim 
that He is risen, when He shall not only proclaim that onr 
dead shall rise ; but there is a time coming when w«^ shall 
hear the trumpet sound, when the angels of heaven shall 
all come, not only a few, when Christ Himself shall run 
those liands of glory under every grave, and lift up all 
our dead; and then there shall be no dead any more; then 
shall be the great assize held on high; then shall be the 
inviting voice to call those that are redeemed and saved 
into the realm of glory on high; then we sliall know -.viiat 
Paul meant when he wrote, "And not only they, but our- 
selves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even 
we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adop- 



FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 543 

tion, to-wit, the redemption of our body." Wheu the body 

shall stand before God forever, no funerals any more, 

no sickness any more, no heart aches any more, no broken 
hearts any more, no sorrows any more, no revenge any 
more, no slanders any more, but all peace, and joy for- 
ever and forever, in the presence of our (Jod, and the 
saints, and the angels! That is the gloTj at the end of 
the path of which I speak this morning. 

III. Having noticed the beginning and the ending 
of this path to glory, let me call your attention to its 
winding. "For I reckon that the sufferings of this pres- 
ent time are not worthy to be compared with the glory 
which shall bo revealed in us." 

1. Please notice that the apostle Paul was down 
on earth when he wrote this letter; and you will please 
notice that this path of glory stays down here on earth. 
We have a great many Christians in the present day that 
are worshipping a dead Christ, and they are worshipping 
a Savior that lived two thousand years ago, and went 
to heaven, and there He is to-day ; they come to the church 
of God and listen to God's Word, they go home and sing 
their song of praise and talk about the heavenly mansions; 
but with all their praying and singing their hymns of 
glory, they never see the path on earth; they seem to see 
it away above the clouds, away above the throne of God 
itself. T haA^e no use for a Christianity that cannot stay 
on earth. We find that this path of glory stays right 
doAvn on the ground. You cannot find it anywhere else. 
When Zacchaeus saw Christ coming he ran and climbed 
up into the sycamore tree, as if a better place to worship* 
was in a tree than on the earth. Christ walked under 
the tree and said, "Zacchaeus, make haste and come down,, 
for to-day I must abide at thy house," teaching him 
the great lesson that the path of glory is down here on 
earth. In the beautiful lesson of the Transfiguration of 
Christ, the apostles Peter, and James and John were up 
there in the presence of that glory. They made up their 
minds that that is the place to stay, and Peter suggested 
to Christ, Let us build three tablernacles here, one for 
Moses, one for Eli as, and one for Thee, as if to say, O 



544 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

Lord God, let us staj up here on this mountain now, build 
three little churches here, and stay here, and get away 
from the world. But Jesus Christ said, Come down Peter, 
come down off of this mountain, come on down to Caper- 
naum, come on down to tliy house; and then when they 
got down to the house, a man came and said. Look here, 
Peter, have you paid your taxes? Never thought of it! 
Oh, there are a great many people in these days that sing 
about glory and never pay their taxes. Better come down 
on earth a little while and do your dutj^ in your home. 
Jesus Christ said to Peter, You go on out and catch a fish. 
Peter said, I have caught the fish and have found sixty 
cents in its mouth. Now, says Christ, take half and go 
and pay your taxes, and take thirty cents and pay mine, 
and take a receipt, and then come back, and we will talk 
about the glory on high. Do you see Avliat I mean? 
There is a religion of some people aAvay up in heaven, 
of a Christ that is dead, instead of working with a living 
Christ on earth. Instead of looking around on earth and 
seeing what is to be done liere, they are looking up on high. 
How many professed Christians there are, I say, who 
call themselves good Cliristian people, that can stumble 
along past the poor, the sick, tlie afflicted, the lost, the 
damned, and never see anything except something of the 
glory on high. 

2. This path of which I am speaking to-day is wind- 
ing around on earth; and not only on earth, but it goes 
through suffering. "For I reckon that the sufferings of 
this present time are not worthy to be compared with the 
glory which shall be revealed in us." The apostle Paul 
wasn't a man afraid of a little suffering. The great 
trouble with our present day Christianity is that we want 
to go to heaven on excursion rates; we want to go easily, 
without any pain, without any suffering. If we are a 
little sick we take on opiate and die in our sleep instead 
of feeling pain, instead of being like Christ, who refused 
to take the vinegar, we want to sleep ourselves into hell, 
instead of getting a clear mind, repenting and going to 
God. We are living in a world where there is suffering; 
and suffering was intended that we should have it for our 



FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 545 

good. Eemember that this path to glory goes through 
suffering. Can you show me a single man in history that 
ever went to glory, even in this world, without suffering? 
Peter might have stayed here on earth and had a good 
time all his life ; he might have avoided the shame of being 
crucified with his head down. Paul, I suppose, if he had 
chosen to do so, might have said, I cannot go through 
all this suffering. What would have become of Peter and 
Paul, and where Avould have been their glory? If they 
had chosen to avoid the suffering, the greatest temple in 
the Avorld to-day would not be called St. Peter's, and the 
next greatest that of St. Paul's. Why have they given 
those great temples such beautiful names as St. Paul's 
and St. Peter's? Because those men suffered and were 
willing to suffer for truth. I ask of tlie apostle Paul, 
What kind of a road did you go over? Here he describes 
it: "Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save 
one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, 
thrice I suft'ered shipwreck, a nigiit and a day I have been 
in the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in 
perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in 
perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the 
wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false 
brethren; in weariness and painfulness, in watchings 
often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and 
nakedness. Beside those things that are without, that 
whicli Cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.'^ 
I say to the apostle Paul, what is it that makes those 
big marks on your head? That is where they stoned me. 
What are all those stripes across your back? That is 
where they whipped me, giving me thirty-nine stripes ^ve 
different times. What is that great big mark you have 
across your back there? That is the one tliat I got Avhen 
I was thrown out of the ship, and was for a night and a 
day battling with the waters. What is that great mark 
you have on your arm? That is the mark of the lion 
when he held my arm in his jaws when I fought for life 
in the arena. Will you tell me about some of the rest 
of them besides yourself, how they suffered? Yes, I will 
35 



546 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. • 

tell you. Here is what liax)pened : "And others had trial 
of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds 
and imprisonment; they were stoned." Anything worse, 
Paul? Oh, yes, I saw them take one of my own brethren, 
lay him down, take the saw and begin to cut him right in 
two like a saw log. "They were sawn asunder, were 
tempted, were slain with the SAvord." Anything else? 
Yes, they took these friends of mine, took sheep skins, 
and .goat skins, and put them over these men, made them 
look like animals, and threw them in to the lions to kill. 
"They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; be- 
ing destitute, afflicted, tormented; (of Avhom the world 
was not worthy) ; they Avandered in deserts, and in moun- 
tains, and in the dens and caves of the earth. And these 
all, having obtained a good report through faith, received 
not the promise; God having provided some better things 
for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.'^ 
Such is the path to glory! It winds through sufferings. 
3. But, dear friends, while it is a fact that the path 
to glory winds through sufferings, it winds over troubles, 
and that is the glory of the Christian life, that the suffer- 
ings, no matter how great they are, comparatively amount 
to nothing. It was that very thought that made the apos- 
tle Paul write these words : "For I reckon that the suffer- 
ings of this present time are not worthy to be compared 
with the glory which shall be revealed in us." Paul, they 
are stoning you! They will kill you! Let them kill me. 
They cannot kill my soul. What is all this stoning com- 
pared with the glory that shall be revealed in us? But, 
Paul, don't you know they are going to take you down 
and cast you into prison, and keep you there two years? 
Well, what of it? What are two years compared with 
eternity? — not worthy to be compared! But, Paul, they 
are going to take you out and cut your head off! What 
is the difference? It won't take five minutes to do that. 
What are five minutes compared with eternity? "For I 
reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not 
worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be re- 
vealed in us." In other words, says Paul, my path to 
glory stays here on earth. While I am on earth I am 



FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 547 

going to be a good citizen, a loyal soldier of the Master. 
I am going to wind around wherever He wants me to go. 
I will stay here on earth and win souls for the glory on 
high. If I must go through suffering, I will go through — 
but remember, I am going through. I will not stay in 
suffering. If you men want to serve the devil and get 
into trouble and stay there forever, stay. I am going 
through trouble into glory. And not only am I going 
through troubles, but over troubles — over them all. I will 
step upon the troubles as my Savior stepped upon the 
waves of the sea. I will trample them under my feet. I 
will look up to the glory on high. And all the time, no 
difference what happens, I will say. It is no trouble; I 
will step over it. There is a wonderful difference between 
suffering and trouble. I have so often said it to people, 
and I want to say it to you again : It is a shame for pro- 
fessed Christians to go around mourning as* if God had 
died. Oh, may God forbid that Christians for the next 
hundred years to come will wear mourning for their 
Christian dead. Tear off the old black garment. Tear 
it off' ! What would your husband in heaven think today, 
if he saw you swinging the old black flag aruund, when he 
is glorifying with the angels on high? Let the time come 
when Christian people will rise above the low level of the 
heathen. Let us get above that low way of looking at 
trials and troubles. Suffering may come to all of us. We 
may all have to groan. We do groan. We do suffer. 
Pain comes and it will come. There are trials in every 
home. You do not know the trials of my home, and I do 
not know them of yours ; but you have yours and I have 
got mine; but there is a God in heaven who gives us 
strength to go through troubles and over them. Trample 
them down and just simply say, I am a child of God, 
and whether I live or die, I am His, and I have no troubles. 
It does seem that when a man has reached his two score 
of years, and has passed them, he ought to know what he 
is talking about. Eighteen years ago, when I began my 
ministry, I told the people then, it is a shame for a man 
to have troubles. They used to say. Just wait, you will 
get jpur troubles! You Avill get them! Well, I have 



548 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

waited for eighteen years and I haven't found them yet. 
People come to me and say, I sympathize with you in the 
trials you have got. I don't need any sympathy. I haven't 
got any troubles. I never did, and I never will! Never, 
never will ! That is one thing that is fixed in my mind — 
I will never have any troubles! I may have suffering; 
I may groan ; may have sadness ; but it will be the sadness 
of a child of God bearing the cross ; and I urge upon you 
this morning as a child of God to remember that your path 
is upon earth, it is through suffering, and over troubles 
into glory. 

In conclusion, as I look over this audience and see 
the hoary crowns, I am compelled to say. How near some 
of you are to this glory today ! And yet, it is possible that 
some of you are further away to day than ever. If you 
are not true^ children of God, your age has added nothing 
to your nearing the glory on high, but is only an evidence 
of your being further away than when you were born. 
May you prepare, by studying the doctrine of God's Holy 
Word, to reach that glory soon; and let me urge upon all 
Christians present this morning to go to work and find 
lost sinners, who will use the good sense to take instruction 
in the saving knowledge of God's Holy Word, that they 
may all reach the end of the path to glory — eternal life. 
Amen. 

PRAYER. 

O God, our heavenly Father, we ask Thy rich blessing to rest upon 
the message of the morning. We pray Thee that Thou wilt help us to 
realize that we are in a world that is sin-cursed; that we are in a 
world into which we come with prenatal ignorance; that it is a blessing 
to come into it, falling into the hands of parental love. O Father in 
heaven, we ask Thee that the maternal hands may hold all children to 
bosoms of love, and raise them for children of glory. We pray Thee, 
heavenly Father, that Thou wilt give a special blessing to the homes of 
our country. Arouse conscience in every home that will make every 
parent feel his responsibility to Thee and to the dear children whom Thou 
hast given. We pray Thee that Thou wilt help us to realize that this 
life is only a short space before the gate of a great eternity. We ask 
Thee that Thou wilt help us to realize that Thy glory on high should 
urge us here to live on earth and here to live among all people to bring 
them home to glory. We ask Thee to give us a missionary spirit, a 
spirit that is looking down and not always up, a spirit that is looking 



FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 549^ 

out, and not always in; a spirit that shall urge Christians in every home, 
in every neighborhood, in every corner, to do some good act to some 
one for Thy glory. Heavenly Father, today bless the Church at large; 
help that the nations of earth may all know there is only one God, 
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and that every other religion is of the 
devil. Help us to reaHze as we never did before, what it means to 
sing of the glory on high, that it means to spread it here on earth. 
Father in heaven, do Thou now bless us as we are assembled here 
this morning in this, Thy house, and may the prayer of Thy servant 
become the prayer of all Thy people, and the prayer which Thou hast 
taught us : 

Our Father who art in heaven; Hallowed be Thy name; Thy 
kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth, as^ it is in heaven; Give 
us this day our daily bread ; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation;. 
But deliver us from evil; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power,, 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 

An Article of Agreement, 

1 Peter 3 :8-15. 

fINALLY, be ye all of one mind, h'aving compassion one of another, 
love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous ; not rendering evil for 
evil, or railing for railing, but contrarywise blessing; knowing 
that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing. For he 
that will love life., and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from 
evil, and his lips that they speak no guile ; let him eschew evil, and do 
good; let him seek peace, and ensue it; For the eyes of the Lord are 
over the righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers; but the 
face of the Lord is against them that do evil. And who is he that will 
harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good? But and if ye 
suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye : and be not afraid of their 
terror, neither be ye troubled ; but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, 
and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you 
a reason of the" hope that is in you with meekness and fear. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved in Christ: 

We have just confessed in the Apostle's Creed that we 
believe in the holy Christian Church. We do not say 
the churches; there is only one church; there never have 
been two churches and there never will be ; but remember, 
my friends, that this one church is not included in any 
one denomination. There are some denominations that 
are calling tliemselves the Christian Church, and by 
others, the Church of God, as if all other churches are 
not Christian churches or have no Christians in them. 
Remember, too, that this one church does not consist of 
those people who seem to think they have a perfect right 
to their opinions, no difference what those opinions may 

550 



FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 551 

be. There seems to be a general idea in the present day 
among some professed Christians, that if thev agree with 
the preacher it is all right, and if they disagree with 
him it is all right. It is all right to disagree with 
a preacher who is preaching his own opinion; it is all 
right to disagree with a preacher who is teaching you 
false philosophy, but when a man of God comes to you 
with "Thus saith the Lord," you have no right to your 
own opinion. God's opinion settles everything. We read 
in the epistle of Paul to the Philippians, Let this 
mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. As soon 
as we try to harmonize doctrines and opinions of men with 
some man, we are going to multiply denominations until 
we can hardly count them ; but when we all make up our 
minds that there is only one Church, and that that one 
Church is the one that can say, "Thus saith the Lord," 
Here it is written, and that is what God says and that is 
what He means, that is the Church, and I do not care 
where you find the members. This one Church of God 
must have the one mind of Jesus Christ, and it is to this 
that the apostle directs attention in the first verse of our 
text: Finally, be ye all of one mind. And how are we 
going to have one mind in religion? Only by subscribing 
to 

AN ARTICLE OF AGREEMENT. 

And that article of agreement must be made between 
the home and the church. I would call your attention to 
the fact that this whole epistle is directed to the church 
in general, and that the text of which I speak tonight is 
directed especially to the home. Whenever we begin to 
divorce the home from the church, and the church from the 
home, we will have just such a state of affairs as we have 
in many homes and in many cities of the present day. 
Let us then remember that this article of agreement of 
which I speak tonight, must be subscribed to by the 
church and by the home. The church and the home to- 
gether demand four or five things that I wish to hold up 
before you tonight, by the help of the Holy Spirit. 

I. The Christian home and the Christian Church 



-552 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

are inseparable. Both demand the plain preaching and 
teaching of God's Holy Word. The apostle concludes the 
text by saying: "But sanctify the Lord God in your 
hearts; and be ready always to give an answer to every 
man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you 
with meekness and fear." Do you knoAv why it is that 
we have so many people in the present day who do not 
know why they belong to this church or that church? 
And do you know why it is we have so many professed 
Christians today that are never able to give an answer 
Avhen you ask them concerning their souls and their doc- 
trine? It is because the old catechetical classes have died 
out. It is because Christian instruction in the home has 
died out. It is because we have not got the Christian 
homes we ought to have, and because we have not got the 
proper catechization in the. church that we ought to 
have. There is a place in old West Virginia where you can 
only find two books in eyerj home, and those books are the 
Bible and Luther's catechism, and I have been told by 
those who have visited in that community that when they 
go into those homes and begin to talk religion, no differ- 
ence if ihej are ministers of the Gospel, they soon find 
they are unable to cope with those families. They are 
men of only two books, but they know what is in those 
books, and they are prepared to answer any question you 
may ask concerning religion and concerning the future 
home. In these days of libraries by the hundreds and 
books by the thousands, we have people skimming over 
book after book, and when you ask them in regard to the 
contents, they know nothing. There is an old Latin pro- 
verb that says. Beware of the man of one book ; and I say 
to you tonight, Beware of the man who has thoroughly 
mastered two or three books. 

What we need in the present day, and every Christian 
ought to agree to this, is a home in which father and 
mother teach their little children from their infancy those 
prayers and those fundamental principles of the deca- 
logue, those fundamental principles of baptism and the 
Lord's Supper, and all the essential doctrines, that they 
may never forget them. I only alluded to the fact this 



FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 553 

morning that what you put into a well first is the last to 
come out, and what you put first into the mind and heart 
of a child is the last thing to come out. You go into the 
home of some aged father or mother of whom it is said 
they have become childish, and what do you find? Just 
the other day, I had the great pleasure of seeing a man 
almost a hundred years old, erect and with a beautiful 
gray beard, at Chautauqua, New York. That man came 
there to visit his daughter, who had a beautiful cottage 
along the lake. There you could see that old man, nearly 
in his one hundredth year, hand in hand with the little 
children, walking up and down, playing and talking the 
same things that he talked when he was a child. The 
first thing in that man's heart is now the last thing in 
his life. We talk about a man becoming childish — what 
does it mean? Simply getting down to the center of his 
heart and mind again. It means he is going back to those 
days when the first truths were poured into his heart, or 
when the first lies were poured in. And so let me urge 
upon you tonight, as the article of agreement that we 
should all subscribe to, to insist upon Christian instruc- 
tion in the home and in the Church of God. 

Why is it that we have reached that age in the Chris- 
tian Church that people want to try to convert others in 
a few weeks time, and then let them run like sheep astray? 
I will tell you why. It is no easy thing to say, but there 
is a little human nature even in preachers, and that little 
human nature says. If I can do a thing in three weeks, 
that ought to take three years, I will try to do it in the 
shorter time, and the consequence is we have been trying 
to pour into our people in three weeks what should take 
three years of solid instruction. The truth of the matter 
is we have so many men not willing to sweat and work in 
the Church of God as a man ought to work in a harvest 
field. Let us learn of Christ how the children should be 
instructed. The Lord Jesus Christ said to Peter, Lovest 
thou Me? Yes. Peter, lovest thou Me? Yes. Lovest thou 
Me? Yes. Then what? Feed My sheep. Feed My lambs. 
Feed My sheep. How many pastors in this world are 
feeding the lambs today? How many pastors are teaching 



554 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

the children and instructing them until they positively 
know the plan of salvation, so that when they are old they 
can give a reason for the hope that is in them? How 
many homes are there where the whole family goes to Sun- 
day School? What right has a father in this short life of 
his to stay at home and say, Children, you go to Sunday 
School; Mother, you go to Sunday School? Is this in- 
struction in God's Word such a shallow thing and such a 
worthless thing that w^e can get beyond it? Where is the 
minister of the Gospel that knows too much of God's 
Word, that he should not take an interest in the Sunday 
School any more? Where are the parents that know too 
much of God's Word, that they should not find themselves 
in the class? And where are the families that have a right 
to be out of the Divine service? I would like to ask the 
question tonight, how many families in Mansfield are 
going hand in hand to the house of God to be instructed 
in the plain Word? And how many ministers of the 
Gospel are trying to reach the most ignorant man in the 
church ? And yet, my friends, unless I can reach the most 
ignorant man in this audience tonight, I have failed to 
reach the most intelligent. The Gospel of Jesus Christ 
should be taught so plainly that the most common mind 
can grasp why these things are so. And when the 
common mind, the most illiterate, can grasp a truth, the 
most intelligent cannot do anything more ; and when a 
truth is presented so that only the most intelligent can get 
it, and the most ignorant cannot, it is not the truth as 
Jesus would have it taught. Then let us agree tonight 
to this great truth, that the Gospel should be taught in 
the home, and in the church, so plainly that no man can 
go out and say, I did not understand the message. 

II. There is another article of agreement to which 
we should subscribe, and that is that every home should 
have a Christian mother who knows her place. Our text 
follows a word from the apostle Peter to the wives : "Like- 
wise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; 
that, if any obey not the W^ord, they also may without the 
Word be won by the conversation of the wives; while they 
behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear. Whose 



FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 555^ 

adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting 
the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of 
apparel ; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that 
which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek 
and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great 
price. For after this manner in the old time the holy 
women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, 
being in subjection to their own husbands. Even as Sara 
obe3^ed Abraham, calling him lord; whose daughters ye 
are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any 
amazement." In these days of the new woman, who wants 
to wear short hair, and the days of the new man who wants 
to wear long hair, we liave too many people who absolutely 
do not know their places. If there is any place of honor in 
the world that is high, it is the place of the wife and the 
mother in the home, and just as soon as any woman fails 
to remember her place, just so soon she is making a mon- 
ster of the family. We all pay to go into a show and see 
a calf with two heads, but how many a man goes into the 
home and finds a calf with two heads, paying nothing! 
How many a family has not only two heads, but three 
or four heads in it, and the result is that we have no homes 
at all as God would have them. When Adam and Eve 
were created. Eve had her jjlace, and Adam had his, and 
this law has never been changed. The family is to have 
only one head, and the wife is to know her place. There 
are some people foolish enough to think it is all wrong 
for a woman to wear jewelry, and at once begin to quote 
what Peter said here. You might just as well say it is 
wrong to wear garments, or to plait the hair. The apostle 
Peter is not finding fault with women for dressing, or for 
putting up their hair, or for wearing jewelry, but he does 
say that a woman ought to know in the home that there is 
something better than simply adorning the hair, than 
simply knowing how to wear jewelry, than simply to know 
how to put on a new dress in the latest style, but that the 
correct adorning of the home is the inward life, the inward 
soul ; a woman who so lives in the home that if her un- 
godly husband will not read the Bible, that he is compelled 
to read the Word of God in her character; and when a 



556 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

woman will know her place in the home she is a power 
that is hard to get away from. You shoAv me a home in 
which there is a wife who loves God's Word, and who 
adorns her home with a soul that loves the truth, a soul 
full of prayer, who adorns that home with all the marks 
of a true Christian wife, who will do as Sara of old did — 
she did not walk up and say, Abraham, you and I are the 
heads of this family; she did not walk up to Abraham and 
say. Now you have got to do this and that; but she said. 
My lord Abraham, I am thy wife; thou art my husband, 
and had we not better do this and that? What do you 
say, Abraham? "Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling 
him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, 
and are not afraid with any amazement" — show me such 
a home and I'll show you an ideal home. There was no 
question in the days of Abraham as to who was the head 
of the familj^ Abraham recognized that God was his head. 
Abraham recognized that he was the head, not only of 
liis own family, but of that great tribe from whom Christ 
was to come; and Sarah, recognized that the greatest 
woman on earth, is the one, not that pays so much atten- 
tion to outw^ard adorning, but the one that has the Chris- 
tian heart to make a true and faithful wife, and so she 
went through the world knowing her place, and today the 
world honors Sarah. 

You can go down to some hardware store and you can 
buy a form, and put all kinds of silks and satins on it; 
you can buy hair and plait it and put it on the head of 
that form and you can get jewelry and put it on the hands 
of the thing that looks like a human being but has no life, 
but nothing but the grace of God can make a Christian 
wife. There are some people whom we can only know by 
their outward appearances. There are some people who 
have within them an unfolding. The more we read the 
more w^e see, and the more we see the more we want to 
know, and the more we know, the more we realize that the 
greatest people on earth are not the men that sit on 
thrones, nor the women that want to be men, but the 
mothers who are mothers, indeed, and are planting into 
the hearts of their cliildren and of their husbands the 



FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 557 

Word of God. Every man in this house tonight will 
agree with me that he wants a Christian wife. There 
are scoffers all around us that would not marry a scoffing 
wife if they could. They know that when the trials and 
troubles come into their home they want a wife who can 
lead them to the Kock of Ages, and if a man is ever so 
ungodly, he seems to have enough of the spark of God's 
life left in his heart that he does not want a bad, defiled 
wife. 

Ill; And this leads me to another thing we ought to 
agree on, and that is that every home should have a Chris- 
tian husband, who knows how to treat a wife. "Likewise ye 
husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving 
honor unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as 
being true heirs together of the grace of life; that your 
prayers be not hindered.'' That your prayers be not 
hindered! And some of you do not pray at all. Your 
prayers are not hindered. But if you are a Christian 
husband you will pray. The apostle Peter tells us we 
have a perfect- right to expect a man in the home to be a 
Christian husband, a husband who knows how to treat 
the weaker vessel, who knows how to treat his wife, who 
knows how to honor her, and place her where she rightly 
belongs, and himself where he belongs. If there is one 
want today in this Christian land, it is Christian men who 
know how to treat their wIacs. Shame on the young man 
that will go to see his intended bride every week and some- 
times oftener, no distance too far, no gift too dear, but 
just as soon as she is his wife, then he seems to say, Now 
farewell; I may be home some night this week and I may 
not ! Shame on the man that does not know his place ! 
Shame on the man that does not know how to treat his 
wife! No wonder she is heart-broken; no wonder she 
hasn't got the rosy cheeks she had in her maidenhood; no 
wonder she is Aveeping and weeping when he comes home; 
no wonder when he comes in the dark hours of the night 
he has to tell her he was at lodge and walked home when 
he knows he never was there : no wonder Avhen she is sick 
and she knows he is the cause, she is going down to the 
ijrrave with a brokeu heart. Oh, shame on the man that 



558 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

does not know enough to be a Christian husband in the^ 
home ! Shame on the man that hasn't got the same common 
sense to demand that his wife have a Christian husband, 
as well as that he have a Christian wife. There is no 
question about this. We will all agree to this, that every 
wife needs a husband that is a genuine man, that in days 
of trouble will not trample upon her sacred feelings; a 
genuine man who knows his place is in the home, who 
knows that it is his duty to train the children, who knows 
it is his duty to lead a pure and upright life, a genuine 
man who will stand by the side of his wife and support 
her as it was intended by creation that he should. God 
says in the first chapter of the Bible that He took Eve 
from the rib of Adam, and some ignorant fools laugh at 
the old rib story. There is nothing to laugh at. God did 
not take woman from the foot of man to be trodden in 
the dust; He did not take her from the brain of man to 
lord it over creation ; He took her from near the heart of 
man, to be loved; from under his arm, to be protected; 
and a Christian man should know his place in the family. 
May God help some man in this house tonight, if he is 
not the husband he ought to be in his home, to know how 
to treat his Christian wife, and honor and protect her and 
support her, and when there are days that she is sick, let 
her lie down and rest, and heli3 her, as she has many a 
time helped him. Woman is not a help-eat, she is a help- 
meet, and man is not simply a boarder, he is a husband 
and should be a father in the home. 

IV. These articles of agreement were not drawn up by 
some man; they are the articles of the Holy Spirit who 
pleads with you tonight to subscribe to them. In this 
article of agreement we find not only that the Christian 
husband should be in the home and in the church, but we 
find, furthermore, that the Christian altar should be there. 
"For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and His 
ears are open unto their prayers : but the face of the Lord 
is against them that do evil." Yes, His e^^es are open over 
the righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers. 
The eyes of the Lord tomorrow morning will be open, and 
He will look into vour home, and He will look to see 



FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 559 

whether you are having any communion with Him. He 
will look to see whether the old Bible remains closed or 
whether you open it. He will look to see whether you 
read a chapter in the presence of your family or not. His 
ears will be open to listen to your prayers; but in many 
a so-called Christian home, He looks and finds the old 
Book never opened; He listens to hear their prayers, but 
He hears nothing but quarreling, nothing but a slamming 
of the door, and anything but a Christian spirit. We are 
all agreed to this, that if we are Christians, tlie Word of 
God should be read every day. We are all agreed to this, 
that if we are Christians and have the strength, we should 
go to God's house and hear His Word. Jesus said : He 
that is of God, heareth God's words; ye therefore hear 
them not because ye are not of God. When a man is no 
Christian he wants to get away from the Bible: when he 
is a Christian he wants to get into the Word. When a 
family is Christian, it will have an altar ; when it has lost 
its Christianity, away goes the altar. Now there is no 
use in wasting words. A question : Is it right to have 
family worship, or is it not? Is it best to have family 
worship, or is it not? Is it best to have worship in the 
church of God, or is it not? If it is best, then, my dear 
friends, do not go home tonight and say, That was a plain 
sermon, and Uiat was the truth, and go on and live like 
heathen all week again. If you have not got family wor- 
ship, in the name of God begin it tonight. If you have 
not got an altar, have one by tomorrow morning. There 
is too much of this sitting around in the house of God and 
saying, that is true and right, and you are not trying to 
live one bit better than 3^ou did ten years ago, making no 
improvement whatever, hearing the truth and not obey- 
ing, hardening your hearts; and that is the trouble with 
the people todaj^, hardened hearts in the Christian church. 
May God the Hoh^ Spirit tonight probe into our 
hearts and into our consciences until we will recognize 
that there is only one right way to live in the home, and 
that is to have the family altar and hear God's Word, so 
that the boys and girls may know that father is not a 
heathen and mother is not a heathen; and that father 



560 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

and mother may know that the children pray. There are 
Christian parents, I will dare say, sitting before me to- 
night, who have not heard their sons pray for years, who 
have not heard their daughters offer a prayer. You 
imagine they are kneeling before their beds every night, 
when they are going to sleep like cattle. It is not simply 
enough that we tell our children to pray; they must hear 
our prayers; they must know that father and mother are 
praying for them. We would not find so many divided 
families and broken-hearted mothers, if family worship 
were conducted as it ought to be in our Christian homes. 

And if we would pray as we ought to in our homes, 
we would pray in the church. The house of God is the 
house of prayer, and we ought to enter that house and 
bow our heads in prayer. I think about three people out 
of fifteen hundred do it; I do not know what the other 
fourteen hundred are going to do about it. The church is 
no theatre; it is the house of God; it is the place to come 
and bow your head and stand and offer prayer, and ask 
God to help you now to get a message that will be a bless- 
ing to your soul. And if we would come into the house of 
God and worship as we ought, we would get a blessing we 
are not getting at the present time. It takes just as much 
preparation for you to hear this sermon as for me to 
preach it. Are you prepared? The place to begin is at 
the family altar at home. 

V. Another article of agreement, and the last one, is, 
this : We should live converted lives. "Finally, be ye all of 
one mind, having compassion one of another, love as breth- 
ren, be pitiful, be courteous ; not rendering evil for evil, or 
railing for railing, but contrariwise blessing; knowing 
that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a 
blessing. For he that will love life and see good days, let 
him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they 
speak no guile. Let him eschew evil, and do good ; let him 
seek peace, and ensue it." There are about twenty-five 
sermons in those words, but we can combine those twenty- 
five sermons in two thoughts, and those thoughts are 
these: Live a converted life — in other words, live away 



FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 561 

from the life of the heathen; and live above the life of 
yesterday. 

I say live away from the life of a heathen. We have 
here the difference plainly taught between the natural 
man and the Christian. Not rendering evil for evil. The 
natural man wants revenge. If any one hates him, he 
hates the other. If any man does him harm, he is watch- 
ing his chance that he may do harm again. In other words, 
he does not understand at all what Jesus meant when He 
said, Love your enemies; bless them that curse you, and 
pray for them which despitefully use you. How often we 
find, right among professed Christians, a feeling of hatred 
and revenge. Professed Christians live side by side and 
never speak to each other, and because one has done the 
other a little harm, the other is just waiting for a chance, 
as we commonly sa}^, to get it back on him. Do you not 
see that this is only a heathen life? Do you not see that 
this spirit of revenge is hurting the Christian church, and 
that it is a comfort to the heathen, himself? Now, pray 
tell me, if I have an enemy, what am I to do? Just two 
things are possible. One is to punish him, and the other 
is to pray for him. Suppose I punish him — that is the 
natural inclination — suppose I am a stronger man than 
my enemy, I catch him by the throat, throw him on the 
floor and begin to hammer his face, and I beat him until 
his eyes are swollen shut, and I make the blood flow, then 
I step back and say. Now I have revenge! What have I 
done with that man? Made him a worse enemy than he 
was before, that is all. This article of agreement demands 
of me something else. It is natural to hate my enemy. 
Turn around, be converted; instead of going with your 
face toward hell, turn heavenward; instead of hating 
your neighbor, pray for him ; instead of abusing him, treat 
him with love; instead of hammering his face, give him 
a gift ; treat him the best you know how. What have you 
done? You have conquered him, made him your friend. 
Which is the better? Can you not see that Christ was 
right when He said. Love your enemies, bless them which 
curse you; pray for them which despitefully use you? Oh, 



562 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

dear friends, what we want to do is to live away from the 
heathen life, and above the life of yesterday. 

^'Let him eschew evil, and do good ; let him seek peace, 
and ensue it." In other words, dear friends, if we want 
to subscribe to these articles of agreement, we must make 
up our minds if we are converted, and want to be con- 
verted, we must live converted lives; we must lead such 
lives that all those around us can see that we are children 
of light. And if all the professed Christians in the world 
would just make up their minds tonight that thej are 
either going to go out into the world and say goodbye to 
ihe church forever, or else do the right thing and live as 
Grod wants them to live, there Avould be such a power mani- 
fested in the church that the world could never get away 
from it. 

Two questions in conclusion : Are these things true 
that I have told you tonight? You know they are. I will 
not pray tonight as I used to hear a certain preacher pray : 
"Lord, if I have said anything today that isn't right, for- 
give me!" We have no right to say a thing that is not 
right. These things are true, and you cannot get away 
from them, and you know it. Sometimes men when they 
hear the truth, talk with their mouths as though they 
didn't like it; but I like to make a man argue with his 
heart. When his tongue says, I don't like it, I want his 
conscience to say. You must like it. Not one can go out 
of this house tonight and say conscientiously, I do not 
believe what I have heard. No one can say in his own 
heart. These things are not practical. 

Another question: Knowing that this is the truth, 
what are you going to do with it? As I said a moment ago, 
there is too much of this thing of letting the truth go in 
at one ear and out of the other; there is too much of this 
thing of hearing the truth, and going home and going on 
just the same as before. I believe a man ought to be hon- 
est with his own soul. If he is going to be dishonest, let 
him be honest enough not to trj^ to deceive the world by 
making people believe he is a Christian in the home when 
God knows he is not. No, we must remember that the 



FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 563 

eyes of the Lord are open over tlie righteous, and His ears 
are open to our prayers. His eyes being opened, let Him 
see that we are reading His Word, and let Him know that 
we are going to Him in prayer. 

And how about the other man? What about the man 
that is not here tonight? What about the woman that is 
not here tonight? Are you simply here to get the truth 
for your own soul? Are the souls of others not as good 
and valuable as yours? Then what? We all need exactly 
what I have told you tonight. We need to have a reason 
for the hope within us. The world needs Christian fam- 
ilies. The time is close at hand when a catechetical class 
will begin for adults, and for children, and for every im- 
mortal soul, and the question arises. What are you going 
to do about it? Are you going to wait until some Sunday 
you hear that next Friday evening the class for adults 
will begin, and next Saturday morning the children's class, 
and Saturday afternoon the young peoples' class begins? 
No. Right now, begin and look around in your home, 
and among your friends, and see if you cannot find some 
soul to be instructed in God's Word, that he may this 
winter yet come to the Savior and be saved and be an 
instrument to save others, and know why he believes this 
and that, and be an intelligent Christian, who can give a 
reason for the hope that is within him. That is the kind 
of work we must do, and go on, in God's name, and keep 
the church growing until the kingdom of this world shall 
be the kingdom of God. 

PRAYER. 

Dear Father in heaven, we thank Thee for this beautiful Sunday, 
arid for the privilege we have had of proclaiming Thy Word in its purity 
and power. We pray Thee that Thou wilt bless this message to the 
souls of all those who have heard this truth, and say to us in plain words 
that can not be misunderstood, Go, work today, in My vineyard. O God 
in heaven, help that everj^ family represented here today, may tonight 
yet, and tomorrow morning, read Thy Word, that Thine eye may see 
them read, and offer a short prayer to the throne of God, that Thy 
worship may dwell in every home. O God, help every husband to know 
his place as a husband and a father. Help every woman in the home 
to know her place as a wife and a mother. Help the children, O God, 
that they may receive the legacy of the Christian home, worth more than 



564 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

farms and all the gifts that this world can offer. Dear Lord and 
Master, go with us to our respective homes, throughout this week, and 
the journey of life, and help us that we may not only come to Thee 
ourselves, but be instrumental in bringing many others to Thee. And 
on this journey of life let us pray for the soul much more than we do 
for the body, in that prayer which Thou, Thyself hast taught us: 

Our Father who art in heaven; Hallowed be Thy name; Thy 
kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven; Give 
us this day our daily bread ; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation; 
But deliver us from evil; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 

We Should Not Serve Sin. 

Rom. 6:3-11. 

KNOW ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus 
Christ, were baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried 
with Him by baptism into death : that like as Christ was raised 
up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should 
walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the 
likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection. 
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body 
of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 
For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, 
we believe that we shall also live with Him; knowing that Christ being 
raised from the dead dieth no more ; death hath no more dominion over 
Him. For in that He died, He died unto sin once ; but in that He liveth, 
He liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead in- 
deed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved in Christ: 

We have not come here this evening for the purpose 
of hearing my opinion or asking for yours. We came here 
this evening with a ^'Thus saith the Lord." We want to 
know what God has to say to our souls. This epistle of 
Paul to the Romans is full of the bread of life, full of great 
truths that no one can deny. In the previous chapter he 
was showing the Romans how through one man, Adam, sin 
came into the world and brought about its condemnation. 
In the same chapter he shows us how through another 
Adam, Jesus Christ, salvation came for the whole world, 
and that, tho' sin is great, grace is yet greater, and there- 
fore there is hope for every sinner who repents and ac- 

565 



566 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

cepts the only Savior. He says: "Moreover the law 
entered, that the offense might abound. But where sin 
abounded, grace did much more abound. That as sin hath 
reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through 
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." 
The Apostle Paul was a great logician, a man who was al- 
ways trying to gather, What will the people think, and 
how will they reason? and to his mind it was only a step 
from what he had taught to a great error. It is a truth 
that sin came into the world through one man, and con- 
demned the whole world ; it is a truth that righteousness 
came through Jesus Christ to save the whole world, but it 
is only one step to a great error, and that is, the people 
might reason, if sin is great and grace is greater, then 
why may not the Christian go on sinning away, depending 
upon the greater grace, and so he put the question : What 
shall we» say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace 
may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to 
sin, live any longer therein? It would be a wrong con- 
clusion, says Paul, for us to think that because grace 
is greater than sin, that therefore we can go right on 
and sin and still be saved. The answer to the question, 
Can we sin on willingly if we are Christians? is given in 
the sixth verse here where it is said we should not serve 
sin. May the Holy Spirit take these few words this even- 
ing and impress them deeply on your hearts : 

WE SHOULD NOT SERVE SIN. 

I. Because we were baptized into Christ's death. 
II. Because we were baptized into His resurrection, 

I. "Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized 
into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death . . that like 
as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the 
Father, even so Ave also should walk in newness of life?" 

In these words we see the whole sum and substance of 
Paul's message. We in the first place were buried into 
Christ's death; therefore we should not serve sin, for it 
was sin that nailed Jesus to the cross; it was sin that 



SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 5G7 

tormented Him on the cross ; it was sin that brought Him 
down to death. Now then, says Paul, if you are baptized 
into that death and into that resurrection of Jesus Christ, 
are you going to crucify Him over and over again by con- 
tinuing in sin? Yes, sin is great and grace is greater, 
but do not for a single moment think that you have a right, 
as a child of God, to sin on, with the view that God's 
grace will cover over your sin, and you can be a child of 
the devil under the garb of religion. What is sin? We 
cannot too often ask that plain question. The answer of 
the Bible is, It is the transgression of the Divine law; 
and transgression means to step over. God's law^ is very 
plain. Every child that can count its ten fingers should 
be taught the ten commandments, and should know from 
infancy that it is a sin not to know who the true and liv- 
ing God is; that it is a sin to take God's name in vain; 
that it is absolutely a sin not to keep the Sabbath Day 
holy. Men should know that not to hear God's Word is a 
sin. God gave men ears to hear His Word. He that hath 
ears to hear, let him hear. I have sometimes wondered 
why God in His justice does not simply strike men deaf 
that refuse to listen to Him; and yet there is an answer 
to this question. God is merciful! Oh, the mercy of 
God that permits men to have ears to hear and yet will not 
listen to Him ! It is a sin not to honor father and mother. 
It is a sin to hate your fellow-men. It is an absolute 
mn to live an impure life in thought, or word, or deed. 
It is a sin to commit adultery. It is a sin to commit 
fornication. It is a sin to steal. It is a sin to tell 
anything that is not exactly true. It is a sin to covet 
anything that is movable or immovable, animate or in- 
animate. A curse will rest upon you if you continue in 
your sins, and upon your children. A blessing will rest 
upon you if you try to serve your God and Master, not 
only on your children, but for a thousand generations. 
Friends, it is sin that nailed Jesus Christ to the cross. 

It was sin that striped His back; it was sin that spit 
in His face; it was sin that pressed the sweat like drops 
of blood out of His forehead in Gethsemane; it was sin 
that made men slap His face and pull the black cap 



568 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

across it, and strike it Avith their fists; it was sin that 
moved the governments of the world and the ecclesiastic 
courts hand in hand to drive the nails through the hands 
of the blessed Redeemer, and through His feet, and pierce 
His breast and heart; it was sin that mocked Him and 
tormented Him; and permitted Him to hang for three 
hours in the light, and three hours in the darkness, tor- 
menting Him, with the very curse of God, because He 
took your sins and mine upon His shoulders. And now, do 
you think it is right, because God's grace is great, to 
drive those nails through His hands again? Do you think 
it is right to continue in sin because God is merciful and 
forgiving? 

Not only did our sin nail Christ to the cross and 
torment Him, but sin brought Him down to death. It was 
sin that gave Him the torment of hell when He cried out : 
My God! My God! Why hast Thou forsaken Me? If you 
are tempted this very hour not to keep the Sabbath Day 
holy; if you are tempted in this very hour to commit 
adultery; if you are tempted to do wrong of any kind, 
remember that you are helping Jesus Christ to say. My 
God! My God! Why hast Thou forsaken Me? It was 
sin that called upon your Lord and Master to give up 
His life and say: Father, into Thy hands I commend 
My Spirit. It was sin that caused those hands that had 
nothing but blessings, to hang there cold in death. It 
was sin that made that body, born of the Virgin Mary and 
begotten of the Holy Spirit, to hang there in cold, icy 
death. And you love sin, and you continue in sin? God 
forbid! says Paul. What shall we say then? Shall we 
continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid! 
How shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein ? 

Now, says the Apostle Paul, when Jesus Christ died, 
and was put into the grave. He redeemed us; our re- 
demption was finished ; and when you were baptized, you 
were baptized into Jesus Christ and into His death. 
Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into 
Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? There we are 
buried with Him, by baptism, into death. In ancient times 
there were many forms of baptism, as far as the water is 



SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 569 

concerned, but never more than one form as to the words. 
The Lord Jesus Christ was very explicit as to the form 
of baptism. He said they should go out into the world 
and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the 
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. 
The form is God's Word, and water. But as far as the 
water is concerned, we are taught by history and by the 
etymology of this word, that there were different forms. 
The word 4Daptize itself means to plunge, to immerse, to 
cleanse, to purify. The form that was used in ancient 
times in warm countries was to take the people and plunge 
them under the water in the name of the Father, and of 
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and you will find many 
ancient landmarks, many a baptismal font large enough 
to take the little babe and sink it under the water. The 
very German word '^taufen" means to say, as it were, 
to dip under ; and we simply are not true to the etymology 
of God's Word if we do not admit that immersion as a 
form is all right. What we object to is when men say 
that it is the only way to be baptized, for from the be- 
ginning of the church, people in sickness and weakness 
were sprinkled, and different forms used, and for 
that very reason, just because infants are born in sin 
and should be baptized, and as a rule are weak, early in 
the church of God sprinkling became the very form ; but 
there is no question about the fact that immersion had 
something to do with the molding of the language of 
the Apostle Paul when he said. Therefore we are buried 
with Him, by bai3tism, into death. He had in mind the 
fact that many people were put under the water. But 
he did not say, my dear friends, that unless you are im- 
mersed you are not baptized. He did not say Avhen you 
are baptized, you are baptized into water, but you are 
baptized into the death of Christ, and I am baptized into 
His death and buried into His death just as much by be- 
ing sprinkled as you were by immersion. Baptism is, 
therefore, that form through which God takes the sinner 
and puts him into the death of Jesus Christ. In other 
words, the moment you are baptized in the name of the 
Father, Son and Holy Ghost, you have got the benefit of 



570 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

Him who died on the cross and was laid down in the 
grave; and as Jesus was in the grave, and came out on 
Easter morning, just so you and I by this baptism go into 
the death of Christ and shall come out — not out of the 
water, but come out every day with a new life and live 
for God. So God takes a man and puts him into the grave, 
covers him over, packs the ground and plants the flowers; 
those flowers grow over the dead; and just so w^hen we 
are baptized, we bury the old Adam and plant on that 
grave the roses of a new life, and live for God, not in sin, 
but in righteousness and holiness. And therefore, my 
friends, we should not serve sin, because we are buried 
into the death of Christ. 

II. But we are not only buried into His death; we 
are also buried into His resurrection. "Therefore we are 
buried with Him by baptism into death; that like as 
Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the 
Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 
For if we have been planted together in the likeness of 
His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resur- 
rection." 

In other words, when we were baptized there was a 
new life planted in us, and that new life is the life of 
the risen Lord. Except a man be born of water and the 
Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. And,, 
Verily, I say unto you, except a man be born of water and 
the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of heaven. In 
other words, we are clearly taught by the Lord Jesus 
Christ that baptism is the means of regeneration, and that 
regeneration is just necessary spiritually as the first birth 
is naturally. I cannot help it that I was born; it was 
not my say so ; my parents brought me into the world ; I 
had nothing to do with that. You had nothing to do with 
your regeneration. It is the work of the Holy Spirit. 
He is the father of your new birth in the church of God, 
with Holy Baptism as the mother. Therefore Jesus gave 
the command to the disciples to go into the whole world 
and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the 
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. 
As I said in the beginning of my sermon, I am not here to 



>^1XTI1 SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 571 

i^ive you my opinion, nor to ask you for yours ; but I am 
here to say that the chnrch that does not insist upon 
the baptism of all who shall be saved is not Scriptural. 
I am here to say that the church of God that does not go 
out and baptize its members is not carrying out God's 
plain and explicit command. I said to the leader of our 
Salvation Army the other day, You try to make us believe 
you are carrying out God's command. Jesus said to you : 
Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in 
tlie name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
GJiost, and you do not do it. Why don't you do it? He 
hasn't given me the answer. I would like for any man to 
answer that. Why doesn't he do what God told him to do? 
Where does God draw a line and say you are to baptize 
old stubborn sinners, but let the little children run and 
grow up like weeds? Listen: Know ye not that so many 
of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized 
into His death? Do you want to be buried into Christ's 
death and resurrection and let the children go? Do you 
want part of j^our family buried into Christ's death and 
resurrection and the other part not? Where did God 
draw such a line? This whole chapter before my text tells 
us that through one man the whole world was led into 
condemnation, and through the other man, Jesus Christ, 
the whole world was led into grace. Why draw a line 
where God never drew any? There is one sin that damned 
the world, and there is one grace to save, and it is our 
duty to know that we must not serve sin, but we shall rise 
with the newness of life that God gave us by the resur- 
rection of Jesus Christ. Therefore, when you are baptized 
in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy 
Ghost, you are not baptized into a name, you are baptized 
into Jesus' death and into His resurrection, and as Jesus 
arose from the grave by the glory of the Father, so in the 
heart of the baptized child there is planted a seed, a seed 
that is to develop into a great life day by day. 

Not only is it true that we must not serve sin as 
baptized people into the resurrection, but we must wear 
the cloak of Jesus' righteousness. What does that verse 
mean when it says : As many of you as have been baptized 



572 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

into Christ have put on Christ? Not that you have put 
on a cloak of water ; not that you have got to go into the 
Jordan and put on the water of the Jordan, but whether 
you are baptized in the river or before the altar, whether 
with a handful of water or a bucketful, the moment you 
are baptized, you are baptized into the death of Jesus 
Christ, who rose from the dead, and that resurrected life 
of His in your heart must have you to rise, and you must 
rise with Jesus Christ all around you, have His cloak of 
righteousness; therefore the Gospel lesson of to-day tells 
us: Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness 
of the scribes and Pharisees, ye cannot enter into the king- 
dom of heaven. And mark you, if you think you are a 
better man than the scribes and Pharisees were, you are 
mistaken. Jesus was not holding up a scoundrel and tell- 
ing you that unless your righteousness exceeded the 
righteousness of the scoundrel, you should not enter the 
kingdom of heaven ; but he held up before the people the 
best men in Jerusalem — the scribes and Pharisees- the 
D. D.'s, the teachers of God's Word, the best men in the 
community, and tells you that unless you are better than 
the best men you can never enter heaven. You have got 
to put on Jesus Christ. That is our salvation, and that 
is what he means Avhen he says you must not serve sin. 
You must not think that you can be a Christian and be 
baptized, and then go right on and serve the devil as you 
did before. How many people there are that come to the 
altar, and are baptized, and think they have gone through 
with a set form; think, now I will not go to church, but 
I will live right on like a child of the devil as I did be- 
fore! No, when you are baptized you have put on Christ 
and you dare not do a thing that you Avould not do with 
Christ in your company. How many of you would live 
as you do, walking hand in hand with Jesus Christ? How 
Diany of you would live as you do if you could draw Jesus 
Christ right over you and walk on the streets of Mansfield 
as your Savior? That is the kind of life to live, and that 
leads me to say : 

Concerning this baptism into the resurrection of 
Jesus Christ, that we must not think that we can make 



SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 573 

a cemetery of Jesus Christ to burj a live man in, the old 
Adam. How many people there are who want to be 
Christians, but they want to keep that old Adam alive 
and just hide him in Christ. 

Do temptations come to Christians? Once in a while 
we meet some of these goody-goody people, so sanctified 
that they actually cannot be tempted any more at all; 
no temptation comes to them any more to do anything that 
is wrong; we sometimes look around for their wings, but 
we cannot find them. Mj dear friends, I want to saj 
right here, that there are people in the world of whom I 
feel sure they are not tempted at all. Why should the 
devil tempt his own? Why should he do it? But mark 
you, if you are a child of God, you will be tempted and 
tempted severely. Are you better than your Savior? 
Wasn't He tempted? Did Jesus not know what He was 
doing when He taught you to pra^', Lead us not into 
temptation? Do you say that prayer should be prayed 
by all except those perfectly sanctified? No, if you are 
a child of Cod you may rest assured that you have still 
got an old Adam with whom you have got to wrestle and 
fight until you breathe your last breath, and your daily 
prayer must be, Lead me not into temptation ! You have 
got a battle to fight. Paul did not say. Before I was con- 
verted, or in the first years of my Christian life I had a 
battle to fight; but no, one of the best men that ever lived, 
one of the best Christians that ever lived, one of the no- 
blest soldiers that ever lived, in his very last moment he 
said : I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, 
I have kept the faith! He did not say, I had a battle to 
fight and struck at nothing. He had a battle to fight and 
fought it. And what made that battle? It was to take 
this old Adam and bury him completely, and win the 
victory. 

Do you know why it is so many Christians fall? It 
is because they do not take a firm stand against sin. You 
cannot trifle with temptation. There are too many Chris- 
tians that just want to trifle a little bit with this 
little sin and that little sin ; they do not want to be real 
bad, but just a little, and so they keep on, and the first 



574 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

thing you know the devil has won the victory. We have 
an illustration of what this battle means in a violinist 
found in the mission of Louis Harmes of Africa. Down 
there, as you know, among the heathen, they are great 
people to dance and jylaj stringed instruments; and 
among those who played for the dance was one very in- 
telligent man who heard the Gospel as preached in the 
Lutheran mission. This man was so impressed that 
he made up his mind he is going to become a Chris- 
tian, and he was baptized in the name of the Father, Son, 
and Holy Ghost, thoroughly instructed as to what it means 
that now he has put on Christ ; that he must now walk in 
this world as if Christ were all around him. He thought 
this would be such an easy thing to do, but before the 
next week was past he was asked to pla^^ for the dance. 
He just loved that old violin and they always paid him 
well to play, and there came the temptation. It never 
occurred to him that he would have to give up that kind 
of a life, and so he said, "But I have put on Jesus Christ 
and I do not believe Christ would play for you; I guess 
I will not." Then they made fun of him and ridiculed 
him. The more they ridiculed him the greater came the 
temptation, but he refused. He said, "I will not play for 
vou any more." Then he sat down and tried to comfort 
himself by playing over the tunes all alone. The next 
week he started out to earn his living by hard toil. How 
hard it was for him to earn a living and work hard under 
the burning sun and come home with only a few pennies, 
when he could have earned the same amount in a few 
minutes at the dance! The temptation grew worse and 
worse. Shall I remain a true Christian or not? Shall I 
work hard all day and earn only a fcAv pennies and be a 
Cliristian, or play for these people to dance in their sin- 
ful dance in this country, and live at ease? The tempta- 
tation grew stronger. At last he said, "I see only one 
way to settle this," and he drew back his violin, hurled it 
on a rock, and smashed it to pieces! The temptation was 
gone. Kight there is the trouble with us. We want to 
play the old violin and keep it. Hurl it against the rock 
and be done with it! You men who are drinking just a 



SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 575 

little bit and do not want to be drunkards, and still want 
to be good cliurch members, stay out of the saloon. Hurl 
the violin against the rock and you will be saved, and that 
is the only way. You who are trifling with this sin and 
that sin, and you know it — Oh, my friends, you know a 
thousand times better than I can tell you, what sins you 
have to contend with. There is only one way, and that is 
a total smash up of the thing that is tempting you. 

I used to think a good deal of the opinions of people, 
and would ask this man. What do you think about danc- 
ing? and the other man. What do you think about so and 
so? Do you know, I have gotten completely over that? I 
would not give one fig — to use a common expression — 
for the opinion of any man on earth that does not try to 
live exactly right, for I have discovered that every man 
on earth is molding his opinions by his own sins. Live 
right. Serve God. Fight temptation. Take the old Adam 
and bury him. Remember your baptismal covenant. Re- 
member that you are in Jesus Christ, and aim to live higher 
every day, and your opinion is worth something and until 
you reach that stage of life it isn't worth anything. Men's 
opinions are not molded by brain; they are not molded 
by education as far as secular education is concerned; 
the only opinion worth anything is the one molded by the 
heart buried into Christ. 

There is a beautiful chapter, I think the 47th of Ezek- 
iel, in which the great prophet sees a little stream starting 
out from under the East gate and going out a thousand 
cubits ; he tries to wade through and it is just ankle deep ; 
he goes another thousand cubits and it is knee deep; 
another thousand cubits and the waters then reach up to 
the loins; another thousand cubits, he tries to wade in 
and cannot; it is a deep river, too wide for him to swim, 
too deep to wade, and so he comes back to his God, and 
finds out that there are trees on both sides of that river 
for the healing of all nations, and that this river is the 
river of life. It is a prophecy of Holy Baptism. Some 
people cannot see anything in baptism but just a little 
form and just a little water, and they say. Oh, that is 
only ankle deep. Then they begin to study the subject a 



576 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

little more, and they discover it reaches to their knees. 
Then they study it a little more, and they find it does 
reach to the loins. Then they go on and study it more and 
more, and they say, Oh, it is a deep river! I believe it 
was King Ludwig, of France, who said, "I believe 
three handsful of water are worth more than all 
my kingdom'' — referring to baptism. "For," said he, "my 
kingdom is only France, but when I was baptized with 
three handsful of water, I received the kingdom of 
heaven!" 

When Superintendent Weller got so despondent 
and so melancholy that all the pastors of the city 
could give him no comfort, they sent for Luther. 
Luther went to the superintendent and tried to comfort 
him with one verse after another, but the poor man lay 
there so despondent that like a worm in the dust he could 
not get any comfort. At last Dr. Luther said to him: 
"Weller, I w^ant you to stop this nonsense. Are you not 
baptized?" And in that moment, like a flash of lightning, 
Weller received light. Of course he is baptized, and bap- 
tized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, into 
Christ's death and resurrection; why should he be un- 
happy? why melancholy? Why not remember it is a good 
thing to be a child of God, and cheer up? There is a won- 
derful power in baptism. Consider your baptismal cov- 
enant. The more you think it over the more you will find 
that one of the greatest acts of God in the history of the 
world, after Jesus had died to save us, was to apply that 
redemption by the means of grace. 

One great trouble in the present day is that many 
people know nothing about the means of grace. They 
want to build a house, but they do not want to know any- 
thing about stone or lumber; they want to build a ship, 
but they do not want to. know anything about the vessel ; 
they want to cross the ocean, but do not want to know any- 
thing about the boat; they want to do things, but they 
want to do them their own way. God has His way to save 
souls, and His way is to give us the Word and the holy 
sacraments, and it is our duty to be true to them; and 
when in those holy sacraments He pours out a blessing, 



SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 577 

it is our duty to receive it. Grod help you not to serve sin, 
but the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Amen. 

PRAYER. 

Lord our heavenly Father, we thank Thee for the message of the 
hour. We thank Thee for Thy wonderful grace and love that has 
saved us, saved us through the Lord Jesus Christ, buried us into His 
death and into His resurrection b}^ holy baptism. O God, we thank 
Thee for that covenant which adopts us, and for the wonderful promise : 
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. If there is one in this 
house this evening, heavenly Father, not baptized, old or young, help 
that one to come to Thee this day yet. O Father in heaven, do Thou 
help that we may obey Thy command and accept Thy promise, and live 
in the great Gospel. Father in heaven, help us this day to sever our 
connection entirely with the old Adam, drown him completely, and try to 
live wholly and solely for Thy glory, and at last when our final hour has 
come, O Father in heaven, take us home to Thee, and on this journey 
do Thou help us constantly to pray Thy prayer which Thou hast taught 
us: 

Our Father who art in heaven; Hallowed be Thy name; Thy 
kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven; Give 
us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us ; And lead us not into temptation ; 
But deliver us from evil; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



37 



SEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 

The Manner of Men. 

Rom. 6:19-23. 

1 SPEAK after the manner of men because of the intirmity of your 
flesh : for as ye have yielded your members servants to unclean- 
ness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your mem- 
bers servants to righteousness unto holiness. For when ye were the 
servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. What fruit had ye 
then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those 
things is death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants 
to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. 
For the wages of sin is death ; but the gift of God is eternal life 
through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved in Christ: ^ 

We should thank our God for those people who have 
been so fortunate as to be Christians all their lives. 
Happy is he who was reared in a Christian family, bap- 
tized as soon as he was born, taught to pray when he first 
could say, "Abba" and never knew the day when he did 
not love his Lord and believe in his God. And yet, my 
friends, there are many people in this world who are good 
Christians, although not reared that way, and we ought 
to thank God doubly for those who were almost eternally 
lost and now are saved. The apostle Paul thanks God for 
something that might surprise some people. In the 17th 
verse he says : But God be thanked that ye were the serv- 
ants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form 
of doctrine which was delivered you. Paul was thankful 
for those people that always had been Christians from 
their infancy, but he was doubly thankful for those that 

578 



SEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 579 

had almost gone astray entirely, and then were brought 
back by the Gospel to their Savior Jesus Christ. My 
friends, the question this evening is not, What have you 
been? but, What are you? And while we should feel very 
thankful for those who have never made a mistake in life, 
we should feel doubly thankful for those who did make a 
mistake- and have been regained by the Master. I wish 
to dwell a few moments on the thought: 

THE MANNER OF MEN. 

I. "I speak after the manner of men, because of the 
infirmity of your flesh." As I look through this epistle 
I find that the manner of men is, first, to be servants; 
all men are servants. The lost are servants of Satan and 
the saved are servants of God. "For as ye have yielded 
your members servants to uncleanness and unto iniquity, 
even so now yield your members servants to righteousness 
unto holiness. But now being free from sin, and become 
servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the 
end everlasting life. These words clearly show us that it 
is the manner of men to be servants. 

1. Every lost man is a servant of Satan, and he not 
only serves Satan, but he serves him with all his members. 
It is a hard thing for some men to understand that they 
not only sin when they are lost, but that they do nothing 
else but sin. There is one word that we use very fre- 
quently in our prayers, namely, we ask God to forgive us 
our shortcomings. What an apology for sin! Where do 
you read in the Word of God that men asked God to for- 
give their shortcomings? A sin is a sin and nothing else. 
When a man becomes a servant of the devil he serves him 
with all his members and does nothing else. You say, 
I cannot understand that? You cannot understand why 
an act is not good, no difference who does it? It is not 
my purpose to explain everything to you that Paul says, 
but it is enough for me to say. Thus saith the Lord. God 
tells us distinctly, Whatever is not of faith, is sin. What- 
soever covers everything, and when you have faith in God 
you are not lost, and when you have not faith in God, you 



580 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

are lost. And when you have no faith in God, no differ- 
ence what you do, you are sinning, for you are robbing 
God of His glory, even when you think you are doing good ; 
you take the glory to yourself instead of giving it to the 
Master. It is absolutely impossible for a lost man to serve 
his God until he is saved. 

Not only is it true that he serves the devil, but he 
serves him with every bone in his body, with every mem- 
ber of his body. The lost man serves the devil with his 
ears. He hears in order to serve the devil. He looks with 
his eyes and serves the devil with them. He serves the 
devil with his hands ; he serves the devil with his feet ; he 
serves the devil with every part of his body ; every member. 
'^I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity 
of your flesh; for as ye have yielded your members serv- 
ants to uncleanness and iniquity unto iniquity." The 
real truth is there is nothing in this world so precious as 
seed. When you go to the harvest field it isn't the straw 
that is made precious, it is the wheat; and just so in the 
human race; it is not this or that member of the body 
that you see externally that is made precious. The sub- 
ject is almost too delicate to mention in public, but the 
whole epistle of Paul dwells upon the fact, and I would 
not be His true servant if I did not say that those very 
parts of the body that are used for the multiplying of the 
human race, are the very ones that children of the devil 
are abusing and using for the service of Satan. Every 
member of the body a lost man is using as a servant of 
Satan; not only goes on and abuses those members him- 
self, but tries his very best to teach others how to sin — 
servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity. As 
the first sin of Eve did not rest with her, but led Adam 
to sin, and then led her and Adam to sin through her 
children, and kept on multiplying until you and I tonight 
are suffering on account of the first sin in the world, so 
the lost soul is not satisfied to use every member serving 
Satan, but is trying to educate others. Do you know of 
a single lost man on earth who is keeping his sin all to 
himself? Even the most secret sins in the world are used 
to educate others. And thus the lost servant of the devil 



SP:VENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 581 

goes on out and becomes an instructor, and the sins mul- 
tiply, not only in his own body, but they multiply in the 
bodies of others. The father plants his very sin into his 
children, and helps to teach others in the neighborhood 
to live as he lived. Every one of you sitting before 
me tonight is a teacher and you not only are teach- 
ers, but lost man, you are teaching everybody around 
you to be lost. If you are a lost father in the 
home, you are by your very life saying. My wife, you 
ought to be a lost Avoman; My children, you ought to 
walk in my footsteps, for I am your father and teacher. 
You are saying to every neighbor that goes to church. 
You are a fool. You are saying to every man that loves 
his Bible, You are a fool. You are saying to every one 
who is trying to lead a righteous life. Why do you not do 
as I do? You are saying to every friend of yours. Follow 
me. Multiplying iniquity unto iniquity. Oh, the awful- 
ness of serving Satan I And not only serving him with all 
your members, but all your powers. 

All men are servants. A saved man is a servant of 
God. The apostle Paul is trying to show the Eomans the 
importance of remiering to God as important a service now 
as they one time rendered to the devil. In other words, 
conversion means to turn around. Now, said he to the 
Romans, as you gave your feet and your hands and your 
whole body, every member, to serve Satan in the flesh; 
as you went on teaching others how to sin, now I ask you 
in the name of God to turn around and serve God. Even 
so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto 
holiness; for when ye were the servants of sin ye were 
free from righteousness. The argument is, when you were 
serving the devil, you didn't care at all to serve God; 
now since you have come to serve God, you must not care 
at all to serve the devil. As you served Satan before, you 
must now serve God. Instead of having those feet walk 
upon the paths that lead to death and destruction, bring 
those feet on the narrow path to heaven. Before this 
you used your hands to help Satan with his kingdom ; now 
you are to toil with your hands for the glory of the Mas- 
ter. Before you used your brain, and tongue, your eyes 



582 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

and your ears to help along the things that were wrong ; 
now use those members for right. As formerly you abused 
the very privileges that God gave you as a man or a 
woman, now I want you to bring into the world men of 
God, and those that shall work for the kingdom of heaven. 
In other words, turn around, a total servant of the Master 
as you once served the devil. 

Not only are the servants of God to serve Him with 
all their members, but they are commanded to serve him 
with all their might. "Even so now yield your members 
servants to righteousness unto holiness." As formerly 
you went from iniquity unto iniquity, now I want you to 
go from righteousness unto holiness, a step higher every 
day. In other words, Christianity is a growth. We fre- 
quently hear men say that on such and such a day they 
were converted instantaneously; before that they were 
children of the devil, and all at once became children of 
God, and so churches after churches have been dumb 
enough to ask a man of this kind to get up and preach; 
and what nonsense they preached! A man does not come 
from a child of the devil in one moment, and be a full- 
grown Christian the next. I do not care whether a man 
is fifty years old or twenty-five, as soon as he becomes a 
child of God he is a babe, and it is necessary for that babe 
to grow. Paul says of old Christians that they are babes, 
and need milk, and when they have grown up he will 
give them meat. In order to preach the Gospel of Christ, 
Jesus took His disciples, who were men, and taught them 
three years, and even then they were not fitted to preach 
the Gospel until after Pentecost. In these days we think 
we are so smart that we can in a few weeks time be 
ministers of the Gospel. I say the Lord our God com- 
mands us now to pray and to serve Him with our raem- 
hers and with our might, just the same as we formerly 
were servants of Satan. 

II. A second thought that lies in the manner of men 
is that all are ashamed. "What fruit had ye then in those 
things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those 
things is death.'' 

These men are now ashamed; formerly they were 



SEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 583 

ashamed of something else. Every man on earth is 
ashamed of sometliing. I do not know any better way to 
illustrate the shame of all men than simply to call atten- 
tion to the little parable of the Prodigal Son. All manner 
of men are ashamed. The lost men are ashamed as the 
prodigal son Avhen he came home. Let us look for a 
moment at the prodigal son. He had a beautiful home; 
a good father ; a good and kind brother ; plenty of money ; 
everything that a young man could ask for. But all at 
once he felt ashamed of father, ashamed of his brother, 
ashamed to be called a farmer's son, and he asked his 
father to give him his own; and then he started away 
from home, and when he walked along down the highway 
and met young men and fell in with them; they said, "Do 
you belong up here on the farm?" "Oh, no; no, sir. I 
have left home for good.'' They said, "Come on, let us 
have a good time," and just as long as the young man had 
plenty of money he had plenty of company. You always 
find that where you have got money, you have got friends. 
It was not long until they sought other company. They 
sought women who were not good Christian women, but 
the worst women they could find. And then those women 
said, "You belong up here in the country, do you?" "Oh, 
no, I have left home for good." "I suppose you are one of 
those clod-hoppers who used to plow?" "No, sir; I am a 
gentleman, now. I have left home. I am ashamed of 
father and mother, and of brother, and of the whole home 
community. I have come down here to have a time." And 
then they had a time. He was not ashamed of the life he 
was living, but when his money was all gone, his young 
friends said, "Now. goodbye! We are done with you." 
And then he was still as hungry as he was before, satisfied, 
up at his father's table. He went out and asked a farmer 
for work. He said, "Go over and herd those swine" — but he 
hadn't anything to eat except the corn, and when the corn 
was thrown to the swine the poor hungry boy at last man- 
aged to get hold of an ear of corn. That prodigal son was 
ashamed of home — and there you have a picture of the 
lost man. 

You ask a lost man to read his Bible and he is 



584 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

ashamed of that ; ask him to lead in prayer, Oh ! how he is 
ashamed of that. Ask hiDi to have a good Christian home, — 
Oh, no. Ask him to go to church — Oh, no, he is ashamed of 
that. Ask him to worship Jesus Christ — Oh, no; he would 
rather curse in the name of Christ than pray in His name. 
Ask him to do anything good and holy, and he will look at 
you. He is ashamed of that. " Ashamed of Jesus ! 
Ashamed of the greatest character that ever w^as in the 
world or ever will come. Ashamed of the hands that did 
nothing but bless. Ashamed of the feet that walked in 
the paths of righteousness. Ashamed of the best things 
that are manly, for you must all admit that the Word of 
God is the best Book in the world. You must all admit 
that the man that will pray to God in heaven is manly. 
You must admit that the man that tries to educate hia 
children aright at home is the right kind of a father. But 
the lost man is ashamed of everything that he ought not 
to be ashamed of, and is actually not ashamed of the very 
things he ought to be ashamed of; but he is ashamed, 
nevertheless. 

How about the righteous man? How about the saved 
man? Is he ashamed of anything? Yes, he too, is 
ashamed. Let us go back to the prodigal son again. He 
came to himself. O God, that every man in Mansfield 
tonight might come to himself! There are hundreds and 
thousands that are going down the path to destruction 
that simply have not come to themselves. They never 
think. This poor man, when he tried to get an ear of corn 
away from the swine, and it ran off, and he could not even 
have what the pigs at home had, came to himself. There 
is a time when the lost man will come to himself — if not 
in this world, on the judgment day. That rich man in hell 
came to himself. He said to Abraham : "Send Lazarus, 
that he tell my five brothers not to come into this place 
of torment," but it was too late. The prodigal came to 
himself and then began to compare that home of the swine 
with the home of his father. He began to compare the 
farmer, that drove him to the swine feed, with his father, 
standing up on yonder hill, with a broken heart, looking 
for his son to come home. He began to compare this filth 



SEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 585 

and dirt with the white table at home. He came to him- 
self. And then he said to himself, "Now, I am thoroughly 
ashamed of myself; I am ashamed of the fact that I, who 
was born of a pure mother, lived with those filthy harlots; 
I am ashamed of myself, that I walked away from that 
dear home and from that elder brother; I am not fit to 
sleep in the same bed with him any more; not fit to dwell 
under the same roof an}^ more; not fit to go home and 
touch my brother's garments any more; I am a good-for- 
nothing man; I will go home, and I will say to father; 
"Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee!'' 
And all this time the father was looking out for the son 
to come home; and when he saw him in the distance the 
father's heart ran out ; he did not give the boy time to say 
anything ; he threw his loving arms around him and kissed 
him. Kill the fatted calf! Bring the ring! Call out the 
friends and let us eat and rejoice, for the lost is found! 
The lost is found! And from that day on this prodigal 
was ashamed — not ashamed of father any more ; not 
ashamed of mother any more; not ashamed of home any 
more, but ashamed of himself, and ashamed of the life 
that he lived. Oh, that poor, broken-hearted boy! I can 
hear his brother saying to him after that, "Tell me all 
about your travels." "Oh, brother, don't say anything 
about it ; I am ashamed of it." I can hear his enemy say, 
"Aha! Where is your farm? Haven't you got any ? What 
kind of girls were those I saw you with?" "Oh, don't 
mention it. I am ashamed! Oh, father, I don't see what 
1 meant to leave home as I did!" And as you sit before 
me tonight and remember the day when you were lost, 
remember what you did; how you went away from the 
Father ; how, baptized in the name of the Father, Son and 
Holy Ghost, you started away and said. Now then, I shall 
have a good time. Farewell, brother. Farewell, mother. 
Farewell, father; I am going to live a life of sin. But 
God, with His broken heart, was following you, threw 
His arms of love around you, and brought you back; 
pressed you to His bosom and forgave you. And now 
some one says. Tell us all about it; and you will not do 
it, because you are ashamed of it. Oh, don't tell it! We 



586 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

don't want to know it. It is the manner of men. We have 
all got something to be ashamed of. The lost are ashamed 
of everything right and good. The saved are ashamed of 
everything they ever did that was wrong. 

III. Notice, too, it is the manner of men to become 
reapers. *'What fruit had ye then in those things whereof 
ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. 
But now being made free from sin, and become servants to 
God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end ever- 
lasting life. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift 
of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.^' 
We are told in another place that there are only two ways. 
There is a narrow way that leads to heaven and a broad 
way that leads to destruction. There is a way for the 
lost and a way for the saved, and he that goes the way of 
the saved shall reap everlasting life; and he that goes the 
way of the lost must reap eternal death. And so you see 
we are going to become reapers, and there is no question 
at all about the fact that you are going to reap what you 
sow. WLatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 
Oh, how strange it is that in this intelligent age, men with 
-over forty ounces of brain imagine that they can sow hell 
all their lives and reap heaven! Men think they can sow 
a life of sin and come home to the Father; they have sense 
enough to know^ that when they plant cabbage in their 
gardens they don't expect flowers ; they have sense enough 
to know that when they sow wheat on their farms they 
do not expect to reap corn ; or that ivhen they plant pota- 
toes they don't expect to reap wheat ; and they know that 
when they sow weeds, or sow nothing, they Avill reap 
weeds ; but it does seem that in the moral field, thousands 
of people think they can serve the devil all their lives, 
and sow death and damnation everywhere, and in the end 
reap heaven. It is not so. There are many pulpits from 
wliich you never hear the Avord hell any more, although the 
Bible is full of it. Many ministers of the Gospel never warn 
their people at all any more. There are many so-called 
wise men who scorn the idea of an eternal punishment, 
but if there is no hell, the Bible is the worst Book that 
ever came into the world; it is a Book full of lies, and it is 



SEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 587 

time we are tearing our churches down, and stop paying 
the ministers Avhose hearts are full of hypocrisy. I say to 
you, Thus saith the Lord, there is a short path to live, and 
on that path you are sowing either seeds of kindness and 
goodness, and holiness, and righteousness, or you are sow- 
ing death and destruction, and you are seven days nearer 
to the end of that path than you were last Sunday, and 
before another Sunday shall have come, some who are sit- 
ting before me tonight may reach the end ; and when you 
reach the end of the lost, mark you! God does not damn 
a man, but He lets him have his wages — for the wages of 
sin is death ; and just as sure as you are going on the path 
of the lost and will not come to the Savior and be saved, 
you will reap your harvest. Don't tell me that Christ 
will damn you on the Judgment day. He will not do it. 
The truth of God's Word is that unless you have been 
saved, you are lost. Christ did not come into the world 
to damn anybody. The Son of man is come to seek and to 
save that which was lost. You are lost until you are 
saved, and the question is, are you sowing on the field in 
which you were born, or are you sowing on the field in 
which you were regenerated? Have you been born again? 
Have you accepted Christ? Are you living in Him? Are 
you walking in Him? Are you serving Him? 

On the other hand, if you are a true child of God, you 
are not going to get 3^our wages; you are going to get 
something that no human work can ever earn. But the 
gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
The servant of hell works for wages, and gets them, and 
it is eternal death. The servant of God works in thanks- 
giving, and he receives the gift of eternal life, the gift of 
grace. Christ is the Savior of the world and all things 
His are ours; so that He is heir and we are joint-heirs 
with Christ. 

In conclusion, I close as I began. The question to- 
night is not at all, what you have been? God knows we- 
have all been mean enough. That is not the question. 
The question tonight is not. What have you done? We- 
don't want to hear the story. God knows it. But there 
is a question tonight that we ought to answer. On what 



588 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

path are we now? Whom are we serving tonight? That 
sermon is not worth hearing that does not make every 
hearer determine to go out of the house of God to live a 
better life ; and that sermon is not worth hearing that does 
not show a man that is lost how to be saved; and if these 
should be the last words that I ever speak, I would say, 
acknowledge yourself by nature a poor, lost, condemned 
sinner; accept Jesus Christ as the only Savior of the 
world ; put your full trust in Him ; be baptized in the name 
of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost; put on Christ; sow 
righteousness, and be faithful until death, and receive 
the crown of eternal life. This is salvation. He that be- 
lieveth and is baptized shall be saved. Thus saith the 
Lord. Amen. 

PRAYER. 

O God, our heavenly Father, we have learned tonight something of 
the manner of men. We have learned that all men are servants ; that 
every lost man is a servant of Satan; that every saved man must 
be a servant of God. We have learned, heavenly Father, that every 
lost man serves Satan with all his members and all his powers. 
We have learned that every saved man should serve God with all his 
members and with all his powers. We have learned, heavenly Father, 
that all men are ashamed of something; that the lost are ashamed of 
the things that are good and holy; that the saved are ashamed of the 
bad lives they lived before they were saved. Father in heaven, we have 
learned that all are reapers, and the time is not far off for some of 
us to reap the harvest. O God, what have we sown today? We pray 
Thee to help us now to sow Thy truth into our own hearts and into 
the hearts of all who hear us, and may we live and so teach that every 
member from the crown of our heads to the souls of our feet shall 
be in the service of the Master, for His great glory ; not for wages, but 
for the gift of eternal life. Hear this our prayer : We ask it in Jesus' 
name, who taught us to pray: 

Our Father who art in heaven; Hallowed be Thy name; Thy 
kingdom come ; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven ; Give 
us this day our daily bread ; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation; 
But deliver us from evil ; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



EIGHTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 

The Spirit of Adoption. 

Rom. 8:12-17. 

€HEREFORE, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live 
after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh ye shall die ; but 
if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye 
shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the 
sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to 
fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, 
Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are 
the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God and joint- 
heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be 
also glorified together. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved in Chi^ist: 

The great German theologian and writer, Scriver, 
pronounced this chapter the golden chapter of the Bible. 
This chapter has made such a wonderful impression on 
some men that in Europe it is the custom before a man 
dies to read this chapter for the last one in his hearing 
before he passes into eternity. In this golden chapter, 
our text is the golden link that is most valuable. For the 
first time in this great letter to the Romans, we are called 
the sons of God, "not because we are debtors to the flesh, 
but because we are adopted by the Holy Spirit. In this 
chapter we are shown what it means to have peace with 
God, and what it means not to have condemnation resting 
upon us. Let me in all brevity this evening call your 
attention to 

THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION. 

I. It is the Spirit of God. 
II. It should be the spirit of every Christian. 

589 



590 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

I. The spirit of adoption is the Spirit of God. "For 
as many as are lead by the Spirit of God, they are the sons 
of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage 
again to fear, but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, 
whereby we cry, Abba, Father." The spirit of adoption 
then is, in the first place, the Spirit of God. 

In order that I may make this lesson plain, let me 
remind you again of the fact that God has only one Son, 
and that one Son is Jesus Christ, the God-man, the King 
of kings and Lord of lords. Eemember that you and I 
could never be called the sons of God were it not by adop- 
tion. God so loved the world that He gave His only be- 
gotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not 
perish, but have everlasting life. It is well for us to keep 
this in mind, because many think that we are the sons of 
God because He created us. You are no more a son of God 
by creation than an ox or a sheep is. They, too, are cre- 
ated. Man is not the son of God by creation, but he is a 
son of God by adoption. 

Another thought we must not forget in thii; connec- 
tion is this, that the w^orld has always been, from the day 
of sin to this time, full of orphans. In other words, the 
human race has by nature been a race of orphans. When 
Adam was created in the image of God he was His son ; 
when Eve was created from the bosom of Adam, she was 
a real daughter of God. When these two parents sinned 
and their children were born, they were born orphans — 
spiritual orphans — and from that day to this, every man 
has been born in the likeness of his father, and conse- 
quently, is born in sin, and must be born again before he 
can see or enter the kingdom of heaven. If now you will 
picture the whole world before you as a Avorld of orphans, 
and Jesus Clirist the only Son of God, you will get a bet- 
ter idea of the text when Paul says that by this Spirit we 
are adopted as children of God. 

It is the will of our heavenly Father, who has but one 
begotten Son, that all these orphans shall be adopted. It 
is not the will of God that any man should be lost. As 
I just quoted a moment ago, God so loved the world that 
He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth 



EIGHTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 591 

in Him shall not perisli, but have everlasting life. Come 
unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I 
will give you rest. And have you forgotten the parable 
where He sent out the invitation in the morning, and at 
nine o'clock, and at noon, and at three o'clock, and the 
eleventh hour, that all might come? It is not the will of 
God that any man should perish. 

When the Lord our God wishes to adopt children 
through the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit, 
the first thing He wants to do with these little children is 
to teach them to talk. "Whereby we cry, Abba, Father." 
That word Abba used to seem to me like children's play, 
and it is a beautiful childish word. It is the w^ord that 
sounds much like the word you uttered when first you 
said papa, mamma; and did you ever stop to think that 
word Abba, can be pronounced long before the word 
father? But do you suppose you could say father without 
putting your tongue to your teeth? Try it once. How can 
a little babe say father, when it has no teeth? The Holy 
Spirit wants to take us, like a mother w^ould take a little 
babe, and touch its lips, and say, Now speak; and uncon- 
sciously the first thing is said with the lips and not with 
the teeth, mamma — papa. And so the Holy Spirit says, 
I will adopt you, dear child, and I want you to begin to 
talk to Me, and talk to the Father, and talk to the Son; 
but Ave will not wait until you are old enough to put your 
tongue to your teeth, but begin moving your lips, and say, 
i^bba ; and when you have said Abba a w^hile, then we will 
expect you to say, Father; and after you have said Father, 
then we want you to say. Our Father, who art in heaven. 
Oh, the beautiful teaching of the Holy Spirit when He 
adopts you ! He does not expect you to be a deaf mute ; 
He does not expect you to go through the world beginning 
by praying like an old saint, nor to keep your lips for- 
ever closed. A child of God must pray. It is the vital 
breath. You cannot live without breathing; you cannot 
live the spiritual life without at least beginning to move 
your lips and say Abba, if you cannot say Father. 

And when the Holy Spirit has adopted you, and has 
taught you to say Abba, Father, then the next thing He 



592 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

does is to teach you how to walk. "For as many as are 
led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." Every 
man is led. Every man has his master. We often hear 
men proudly say, I am my own boss ; but no man on earth 
is his own master. Every man on earth is serving God or 
Satan. Every man is paying a price to his master. I 
have heard men say, I would belong to the church of God, 
but I cannot afford it. The very men that cannot afford 
to pay to keep up the church of God, are the men spending 
hundreds of dollars every year for the devil and devilish 
things. No man on earth is his own. No man can get rid 
of the fact he has got to be led. Who is your leader? 
The Holy Spirit the moment He adopts you, says, I will 
lead you, and w^hen I lead you, I will lead you as a child 
of God. Have you ever seen a mother teach the little babe 
to walk, — how at first she takes the little babe and says. 
Stand up; and then the little child places its hands in 
mother^s hands, and she begins to pull her hands away 
from the child, and the little child follows, and takes its 
awkw^ard first step. Then after a while it can w^alk a few 
steps alone, and mother will set it down again and walk 
away and say. Little darling, come to mamma, and the 
child starts and runs, and before it falls it reaches the 
mother's hand again; and thus it keeps on, from the 
awkward step to the run, and it will not be long until it 
runs across the room itself, and the w^hole family is happy 
because the child can walk. A little while longer and it 
crawls down over the step, and in a little while you see 
it running around in the yard. It was led by the mother 
to walk, that it might be mother's child. When the Holy 
Spirit takes us, when we are adopted, he says. Now that 
you can say Abba, and now that you can say Father, take 
My hand ; ask yourself the question. Where do I want yoil 
to go ; and I will lead you ; I will lead you to the house 
of God; I will lead you to the Word of God; I will lead 
you to the closet of prayer; I will lead you to those who 
can teach you the way and make it clear to you; 1 will 
lead you to the Savior, Jesus Christ, and through Him I 
will lead you to the Father, and I will help you to walk ; 
and after you can walk, then you must learn to bear your 



EIGHTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 593 

burden, and bear the burdens of others; and thus learn 
the truth, For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, 
they are the sons of God. 

He not only teaches His children to talk and to walk, 
but when He adopts us. He furthermore assures us that 
we are His. ^-The Spirit itself beareth witness with our 
spirit, that we are the children of God.'' Now and then 
we hear professed Christians say, I am not quite sure 
whether I am a Christian or not. What strange talk. Are 
you not sure whether your mother is your mother? Are 
you not sure whether your father is your father? I know 
there might be a few people in the world who are not 
exactly certain who their father is. Booker T. Washington 
does not know to-day who his father is, but Booker T. 
Washington is the exception. I will dare say every one in 
this house tonight knows positively who his father is and 
who his mother is, and why should you not know whether 
God is your Father or not? Why should you not know 
whether His Bride, the Bride of Christ, is your mother or 
not? Are you baptized in the name of the Father, Son and 
Holy Ghost? If so, do you believe in God the Father, Son 
and Holy Ghost? If you do, listen : He that believeth and is 
baptized shall be saved. Do you not know who your 
Father is? Do you not know who your mother is? He 
that is of God, heareth God's Words; ye therefore hear 
them not because ye are not of God. Do you love to hear 
God's Word? If so, you are a child of God. Do you not 
care to hear God's Word? If not, you are not a child of God. 
Are you glad you are baptized? If so, you are a child of 
God. Do you wish you were not baptized? Then you are 
not a child of God. Do you love God's truth? If so, you 
are a child of God. Do you hate God's truth? If so, you 
are not a child of God. Do you love to keep a clean con- 
science? If so, you are a child of God. Do you fight 
against a clear conscience? If you do, you are not a child 
of God. Is it your purpose to be faithful until death and 
receive the crown of eternal life? Then you are a child 
of God. Do you not care whether you are faithful or not? 
Then you are not a child of God. As many as are led by 

38 



594 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE, 

the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. The Spirit 
Itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children 
of God. So you see the dear Father in heaven wants you 
to positively know that you are His. 

When He adopts you, He not only takes you into His 
family and gives you bread to eat and clothing to wear, 
but He furthermore says, I want to make you an heir. 
"And if children, then heirs." The Apostle Paul goes 
link by link down the golden chain. He says, if God, our 
Father, adopts us by the Holy Spirit, that means that we 
should talk ; and if we learn to talk to Him, we ought 
to learn to walk Avith Him; and if we walk with Him, we 
ought to be His; and if we are His, we ought to be heirs. 
In other words, if we are adopted children of God, then 
He has got something in store for us which we have not 
yet. There is a wonderful difference in the home between 
the son and the servant. They both may plow the same 
field; both may drive teams of horses, one just as much 
as the other; both may do the same kind of day^s work; 
but when the year is up the servant receives his pay and 
goes away; the son may receive no money, and he may 
think it is better to be a servant than to be a son ; but that 
son forgets one thing; that son forgets that when he is 
working for father and mother, he is working for himself; 
and when father dies and the will is read and he finds 
out there that the son who complained against the servant 
receiving his pay, now becomes an heir to the farm, he 
discovers AA'hat he did not know before, that when he 
worked for father he worked for father's son; when he 
worked for mother he worked for mother's son ; and now 
he is an heir, and there is a wonderful difference between 
being an heir and being a servant. 

When we are adopted by the Holy Spirit we are to 
become heirs, and not only heirs, — but Oh, the wonderful 
love of God! — joint heirs with Jesus Christ. "And if 
children then heirs; heirs of God and joint-heirs with 
Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may 
be also glorified together." In other words, when we are 
adopted God does not say. Now I have one Son, and that 
one Son is to get nearly everything, and the rest I will 



EIGHTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 595 

divide among My adopted children. No, the wonderful 
love of God is this: He has but one Son, and tliat one 
Son is heir of all things, but that one Son so loved the 
world, that He gave Himself, His own life, that He might 
say to the poorest among you, I will adopt you ; and every 
adopted son shall be a full brother in Jesus Christ, and 
every adopted daugliter shall be a full sister in Jesus 
Christ ; and the will of God now is that we shall all, who 
are adopted, be joint heirs with the only Son of God. 
That, my friends, is the Spirit of adoption. 

II. This Spirit of adoption is not only the Spirit 
of God, but should be the spirit of the Christian. "For ye 
have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear ; but 
ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, 
Abba, Father." We have received that Spirit ! Oh, what 
a wonderful Spirit that is, the Spirit of adoption! You 
will notice that I only asked you to sing the first three 
stanzas of Hymn No. 249. Right at this point I want you 
to sing the fourth stanza, — that is, you who want to be 
adopted as God's children and who want the Spirit of 
adoption: (Congregation sing.) 

"To God I'm reconciled, 

His pardoning voice I hear : 
He owns me for His child, 

I can no longer fear; 
With confidence I now draw nigh, 
And, 'Father, Abba Father!' cry/' 

I take it for granted that all of you who sang this 
stanza would love to have the Spirit of adoption, and 
it is my purpose to show you this evening the wonderful 
difference between a professed Christianity and a true 
Christianity, as there is a wonderful difference between 
saying prayers and praying. 

Now let me give you another picture of life. Look at 
the homes of our country. It is not my intention to make 
this a very popular sermon here on earth, but I do hope to 
make it extremely popular in heaven. What I have to say 
in the next few moments will strike at every home in this 
city, at every home, I believe, in the Christian world. 



596 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

How many homes are there that have the Spirit of 
adoption? See the homes of our country that have ab- 
solutely no children in them. There may be many of these 
that would love to have children and cannot. Like Han- 
nah of old, it may be that this very day their lips are mov- 
ing for God to give them a Samuel. May God answer 
their prayers! 

There are not only homes that have no children, but 
there are many that have only one and will have no more. 
May God have mercy on them ! I know^ the sayings that go 
around among the people. Many a w^oman has said that 
if Pastor Long just had one child he wouldn't say anything 
more about it. They are the same women that never had 
any more than one child, that say these things. How 
many homes there are that have only one or two and will 
absolutely have no more. How many small homes there 
are these days, and liow few there are that have the good 
old families that God asked for wiien He said. Be fruitful 
and multiply, and replenish the earth! and He never re- 
voked that command. 

On the other hand, I wish to show you another 
picture. Look at the Childrens' Homes all over this 
country, and the Orphans' Homes. Where is the church 
today that has not got a home for little children who 
have no fathers nor mothers ; and where is the county and 
the State in this Christian land that does not make pro- 
visions for these little infants? Look at the cost of main- 
taining these homes by fraternal orders and churches and 
states, and the most of people seem to think that w^hen 
we have built a big house and placed a man and a woman 
there to feed and clothe these children, that we have done 
our dut}^ fully. Thanks be to God for the orphans' homes 
of our land ; but I am one of many others w^ho believe that 
if the Christian church w^ould do its full duty, there w^ould 
be absolutely no need wiiatever for any childrens' homes 
or any orphans' homes in this wide land. I do not believe 
that we as Christian people have the Spirit of adoption. 
I do not believe that we have received that Spirit of 
which God speaks in this verse : For ye have not received 



EIGHTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 597 

the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received 
the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." 

Keeping in mind now the homes that have no children, 
or only a few; keeping in mind the many poor little or- 
phans all over this world, let us notice that we as Chris- 
tian people should ask ourselves the question. Are we 
willing to adopt any child into our home as God the Holy 
Spirit adopted us? Are we willing? Oh, it is a nice thing 
to sit down and sing as we sang that we are adopted, but 
are we willing to adopt? This sermon hits the preacher 
just as hard as it does the pew. If any people in the 
world ought to live right, it ought to be in the parsonage. 
Suppose, to make this sermon practical this evening — and 
a sermon that is not practical is not worth anything — 
suppose I should go out on the street today and tind on 
some lonely step a child, as three children were found in 
the city of Columbus the past week, of which we do not 
know who is the mother or the father — suppose I should 
pick up that child and first of all walk right down to our 
own parsonage, in the presence of my wife and children 
and say: ^^Look here, I have found something. A little 
boy.'' "Who is the father?'' "I don't know." "Who is the 
mother?" "I do not know. Let's adopt it." "What is 
the matter with you, paija? Haven't we got four children 
yet? Haven't we had six? And you bring in this child 
and Avant to adopt it?" "Well," I say, "Look here, my 
dear family, God has adopted us when we were orphans, 
and He gave us the Spirit of adoption, and I believe we 
ought to keep His children." "We cannot do it. We have 
got children enough of our own. Take it to one of the 
neighbors." Well, then, I would start out and go from 
one family to the other in the Church Council. I go to 
the first man and say, ^^I want you to take it." "Oh, we 
cannot take it." I would go to the next, "We don't 
Avant it." I would go on around. Then I would go to all 
the families of the church and say, "Here is a babe. I 
want you to take it." "We cannot do it." "What will 
we do with this little babe?" "Take it to the Orphans' 
Home!" Is that the Sfjirit of adoption? 

But I am not done with that child yet. I come. back 



598 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

home the second time and I say, "Look here. I have been 
to every family in the church and not one wants this babe. 
I liave found out where it came from. It is born of the 
meanest, lowest woman in town, and it is begotten by the 
worst old drunkard in the world. The child is a badly 
born child, and I have made up my mind that we had bet- 
ter adopt it." "Oh, holy horrors! You don't mean it?'' 
"Why yes, I do. I mean here is a little babe that has to 
be cared for.'' "But we have children." "Well, God had 
a Son, too, and He adopted us. That was His Spirit. He 
had a Son, a dear Son, and He adopted us all, and we 
were pretty badly born, too." "Well, but if this child 
had come from real good parents we wouldn't object, but 
this little badly born babe, Avith a bad mother and a bad 
father, how can we have that in the house?" "That is just 
what God did when He adopted us. We were so badly 
born we weren't fit to lie on the steps. He took us and 
adopted us. I guess we had better keep it." I can hear the 
children say to mamma, "I believe papa has lost his mind ; 
he is crazy!" I start out again to the Church Council 
and tell them about the babe. "W^on't you take it?"^ 
"No, sir! take it away." I go through the whole church. 
Not one will take it. 

Then I come home another time. I say, "This little 
babe has got to have a home, and that is not all. Dear 
wife and children, I have made up my mind that this 
little waif, badly born, has got to be brought into our 
home, and when I make my will, if I have a farm, it has 
to have its share; if any money in the bank, it must have 
its share." The children say, "Take the baby away! We 
don't want it!" And all the time this is the parsonage 
of the First Lutheran Church. It is just like every other 
parsonage over the city, and it is like the homes of our 
congregation. And so I go on. I find out if I want any 
peace in my own home, I have to walk out with the baby 
the third time and visit the Church Council and every 
family. They say, "We simply cannot have it, and we 
will not put anything in the will about it." I go to every 
member of the church, and then to those members that 
have no children at all. "Oh, horrors! We don't want 



EIGHTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 599 

that thing." And we are the people who just sang the 
song about adoption. We are the people that have asked 
God to come and take us, take us, badly born as we are, 
take us and make us heirs and joint-heirs with Jesus 
Christ, but we wouldn't have the Spirit of adoption if 
God wanted to give it to us. 

I am not preaching this sermon to you alone. I am 
convinced that we preachers and people have not got to 
the depth of God's Word at all. I believe we are around 
on the surface of that Holy Word. I believe there are 
thousands of deep treasures in this Book we have never 
found yet, and if we had the Spirit of adoption as God 
wants us to have it, we would go out and say that just 
because this babe is badly born it needs a good home. 
In the name of common sense, is a babe badly born any 
better off iu a bad home than in a good one? That is 
the question. If we have received the Spirit of God, the 
Spirit of adoption, should we not have mercy on the poor, 
badly born little infants of this country, and put them 
in the best homes we can find and raise them for God's 
glory? My aim is to put you to thinking. Ask yourselves 
the question, after all are we not just playing hypocrite? 
Just along on the surface of God's eternal truth, and we 
cannot see the depth of it. We want the truth, and want 
to live up to it. What should we do if that babe were 
brought to our home and either had to be thrown out or 
adopted? What would you say if father and mother were 
to adopt another child to become heir with you in the dis- 
tribution of gifts? How many Christians are there in the 
world? Am I a Christian? That is the question. Is 
the minister of the Gospel a Christian? That is the ques- 
tion. May God help us to give ourselves a very close 
searching of heart this afternoon. Go to the depth of 
God's Word and pray to God, Oh God, give us the Spirit 
of adoption. Amen. 

PRAYER. 

Lord, our heavenly Father, Thou hast a great Son, an only Son, 
Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world; and that Son so loved the world 
that He laid His life down that all the orphans might be adopted and 
ibecome joint heirs with Him, and enjoy all His legacy forever and ever. 



600 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

And, Father in heaven, it is Thy will that Thy Holy Spirit should give 
us, Thy children, the Spirit of adoption. O God, do Thou help us this 
evening to question ourselves very closely. Have we got that Spirit? 
Have we got that love for humanity that Thou hadst for us orphans? 
Are we as willing to make them heirs of what little we may possess, 
as we have been to become heirs of what Thy Son possessed. Lord 
God, we ask a special blessing this evening upon the newly born babes 
of our own church. Bless their dear mothers and fathers and the dear 
little children. We ask Thee to be with those families that have no 
children ; we ask Thee to be with the small families ; we ask Thee to 
be with the large families ; and may we who have the larger families 
be just as willing as those who have the smaller, to have another added, 
even if it is by adoption, to become a joint heir, and to show that we 
are not selfish but unselfish. O God, help that soon dear childreri may 
come into every home where there is only one, and rob that one of that 
selfishness which seems to feel that everything is mine — mine. We 
pray Thee that Thou wilt bless those families who have more children 
than one and where there are none, and help that there may come to 
those families those bright little faces that shall make the home heavenly. 
We ask Thee to be with us as a church and bless us and increase us in 
faith as well as in number, and may we, when our last hour comes, find 
ourselves heirs and joint heirs with Jesus Christ, who taught us to 
pray : 

Our Father who art in heaven; Hallowed be Thy name; Thy 
kingdom come ; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven ; Give 
us this day our daily bread ; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us ; And lead us not into temptation ;. 
But dehver us from evil; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power,, 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



NINTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 

Why So Many Fall. 

1 Cor. 10 :6-13. 

'^^TOW these things were our examples, to the intent we should not 
I ^ lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be ye idol- 
/ ^ aters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat 

down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Neither let us commit 
fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and 
twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also 
tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some 
of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now 
all these things happened unto them for ensamples, and they are written 
for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Where- 
fore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. There 
hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man ; but God 
is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able ; 
but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye' may 
Idc able to bear it. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth: 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved in Christ: 

The world is full of fallen people. Who are they that 
fall? Do I mean the heathen? How can a heathen who 
never w^as a Christian, fall from grace? Those who fall 
from grace are not heathen, but children of God. We 
are told in the beginning of this chapter that tliose who 
were delivered from Egypt and crossed the Red Sea, were 
all baptized by that sea, not immersed, but saved b^^ the 
dividing of the waters, walking across on dry land ; saved 
by the hand of God that led them over. Possibly you will 
understand the whole story better if I give you the Word 
of God verbatim: "Moreover, brethren, I would not that 
ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under 

601 • ' 



602 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all 
baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea ; and did 
all eat the same spiritual meat ; and did all drink the same 
spiritual drink ; for they drank of that spiritual Rock that 
followed them ; and that Eock was Christ. But with many 
of them God Avas not well pleased; for they were over- 
thrown in the wilderness." They fell. "Now these things 
were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after 
evil things, as they also lusted." Here is a story of six hun- 
dred thousand men who could bear arms, professed fol- 
lowers of the true and living God, who saw with their own 
eyes the mighty works of the almighty hand of God ; who 
saw that Avonderful cloud by day and fire by night; who 
were fed with manna which fell from heaven ; and with all 
these manifestations of the presence of the true and living 
God, their bones were scattered over the desert, and only 
two of the whole number ever reached the promised land. 
My friends, these things were written for our warning, for 
our admonition, in order that we might not fall; and 
show us : 

WHY so MANY FALL. 

May the Holy Spirit apply this sermon this evening 
to you individually. May you sit before me tonight as if 
you were the only person to whom I am speaking; and 
may I forget that I am a minister of the Gospel and not 
preach professionally, but may God help me to apply this 
sermon to my own soul. 

I. Many people fall because they do not try to stand. 
"Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is 
written. The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose 
up to play." Those people knew the true and living God. 
God put them on their feet and said. Now stand ; but they 
had not crossed the sea and gone very far until even within 
the sound of the thunderings of Sinai's lightnings and 
storms, in sight of the giving of the law to Moses, they 
said to Aaron, Give us gods as we had in Egypt ; and they 
made a golden calf and danced around the false god, in- 
stead of worshiping the true and living God. Why? Be- 
cause they did not try to stand. It was not a question 



NINTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 603 

that day whether there is a true and living God or not; 
it was not a question that day at all whether these people 
had ever heard of the true and living God; it was not a 
question whether heathen fall; it was a question, will 
children of God stand, or will they not? and they said, 
No, we will not stand; we will dance around the golden 
calf because we love it, as we learned back there in Egypt. 
In other words, some people love idolatry a great deal 
better than the true and living God. And so would I, 
if I wanted to sin. I cannot sin with the true and living 
God before me, because He has eyes that see, and He has 
ears that hear; but when I want to do wrong. Oh, how 
nice it is to have a god made of stone. You can take your 
hatchet and hit him on the head; he does not know it. 
When I want to sin, how fine it is to have some unknown 
god somewhere that never gave his people a Bible; that 
never knows anything of a Judgment. 

And these very people who love idolatry better than 
the true and living God, are the very people who would 
rather sit down to a big feast and make a god of their 
bellies than to worship the true and living God. "The 
people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play." 
How many professed Christians there are to-day who will 
go to any missionary society providing you have got some- 
thing to eat; they will go to any missionary society pro- 
viding there is something to drink; they will go to any 
€hurch gathering providing you can play fool; but how 
many people are there who will go to the missionary so- 
ciety for the sole purpose of learning what God is doing 
to save the souls of the world? How many people are 
there who go for the sole purpose of opening their pocket- 
books and giving money to send some man out to tell the 
poor lost world how to be saved? Why do men fall? Be- 
cause it is natural for the natural man to love idolatry 
and to hate the truth. They do not try to stand. 

This is not only true with regard to idolatry; it is 
just as true with regard to licentiousness. "Neither let 
us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and 
fell in one day three and twenty thousand.'^ Back in the 
garden of Eden when God made man. He wrote on his 



604 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

heart, Thou shalt not commit adultery. In order that the 
people might not forget it, God gave the law to Moses over 
on yonder burning mt3untain, and wrote with His own 
finger on tables of stone, Thou shalt not commit adultery. 
And the people doAvn at the foot of the hill seemed to know 
what is coming. There was a reflection in their own hearts 
of what was going on on Mount Sinai, and they said. Come 
on, let us hurrj^ up; the law is coming; let us have a 
grand old time before that time; and twenty- three thous- 
and people committed fornication and were killed in a 
single day. Why? Because they did not want to stand. 
They did not try to stand. And why is it that so many 
professed Christians have the stain on their character 
that never can be blotted out, tho' God can forgive them? 
Because the only object they have hi all the world is just 
an opportunity, watching for a chance. The question 
with them is not at all, what is right or what is wrong; 
but, I would love to do wrong, where is the chance and 
I Avill do it; and they fall because they do not want to 
stand. 

There is another very common sin among people that 
makes men fall, and that is a rebellion against God and 
against His servants. "Neither let us tempt Christ as 
some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of ser- 
pents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also mur- 
mured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.'^ You who 
are acquainted with Bible history know these old stories. 
You know how the people were not satisfied with the 
manna that fell from heaven, and how they murmured 
against God and against Moses, and the apostle tells the 
Corinthians they murmured against Christ. When Moses 
struck that Eock, the people supposed, this is just a stone, 
but it was a type of Christ. That cloud of the wilder- 
ness some thought was just smoke or a cloud, but we are 
told in the Word of God it was Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ 
is not only two thousand years old ; He is the Alpha and 
the Omega, the beginning and the end, yesterday, today, 
and forever; and as they did in the wilderness in those 
days, rebelled against Moses and rebelled against God, 
and were slain by the thousand, so that out of the six 



NINTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 605 

hundred thousand men, the very desert was covered with 
the bleached bones of the men that fell because they 
wanted to fall, only two of them ever reached the 
promised land. 

Now, dear friends, let us not suppose in these days 
it is so much easier to be a Christian that it used to be. 
Hundreds of people in the Christian churches these days 
are living lives that they would not have pictured on the 
wall and have you to look at them for anything. How 
many of us would love to do that today? I ask the ques- 
tion, Why do so many people fall, and the first way that 
the devil wants people to fall is simply to get them into 
that mental condition that they do not care. 

II. Then there is a second reason for falling. The 
second class of people who fall so easily are those who 
think they must stand. "Now all these things happened 
unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our 
admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. 
Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth tak^ heed 
lest he fall." The Apostle Paul recognized the fact that 
some people in the world think they must stand. 

There are certain classes of people who look back 
over their lives and make comparisons between themselves 
and others, and they cannot see that they have ever fallen 
like some people have, and consequently they draw the 
conclusion, I never can fall ; I must stand. Then again 
sometimes they have no sympathy whatever for those who 
have fallen; and then, in the third place, they draw the 
conclusion that just because they never have fallen, they 
can take part in certain questionable things that others 
cannot, because they must stand. 

BeT\'are of the man that grows proud in his spirit and 
thinks, I never fell and consequently never will fall. Did 
you ever stop to ask the question what would have be- 
come of you if you had been reared as some people have 
been ; if you had been thrown out into the world as some 
people have been thrown out? It is well enough for you 
and me to boast that we never fell, when we had parents 
who watched us day and night until we were fifteen years 
old, and prayed with us every day, and threw their arms 



606 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

of love around us, and had our conscience brightened by 
sending us to the pastor and having us thoroughly cate- 
chized and instructed until our consciences were burning 
as briglit as the fires of Sinai. It is well enough for. you 
and me to boast that we never fell when we were put out 
into the very be«t families that could be found with a 
warning to those who were watching us to report at home 
how tlie boy is behaving. It is well enough for you and 
me to boast that we never fell when many a time we would 
have fallen if we had only had the opportunity; but God 
was careful to watch over us and protect us. It is easy 
enough for us to boast that we never fell when we are so 
homely that nobody in tlie world w^ould look at us. ,It is 
easy enough for us to boast that we never fell when no 
one ever tried to make us fall. My dear friends, let us 
not boast. There are thousands of ways and traps for us 
to fall, and let him that thinketh he standeth take heed 
lest he fall. No sympathy for the fallen. You think be- 
cause David fell he was a Aveak man? There is not a 
stronger man in the world today than David was. Be- 
cause the Apostle Peter denied his Master, you say weak 
Peter. There isn't one man out of ten thousand that 
would not have denied his Master under the same cir- 
cumstances. You say fallen Judas, but, my friends, many 
a man today would be a Judas if he had the opportunity. 
Be careful that you do not lose sympathy for those that 
have fallen. 

Here is a young man with money in his pocket; no 
father or mother who are Christians ; thrown out into the 
world at the age of sixteen or eighteen; gone from the 
innocent country — and sometimes the country is not so 
innocent — to the city ; falls into bad company. A home- 
sick boy will make company Avith a dog; he will take up 
with any man; he will take up company with any woman. 
My dear friends, that young man tlirown out into the 
world as I have described, with lust burning with strong 
physical development, unless tlie mighty grace of God 
throws its arm around him, will fall. Your daughter, 
left without a mother's care, going away from home, 
treated illy by those that ought to lift her up, lonely and 



NINTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 607 

lonesome, looking for company, wanting some kind word 
somewhere, will take up with the first man she sees in 
some way or other, and the more God has blessed her, the 
more Satan will try to overthrow her. Don't boast, my 
dear friends. When you think you are standing you will 
fall. 

And especially is this true when we once get the 
notion in our heads that we have stood so long that now 
we are safe, and we can do what others cannot do. Did 
you ever try to picture your whole life in some one else? 
The devil always makes us believe that whatever we do is 
right; that we are justified because it is tue; he always 
makes us believe that we have certain environments and 
certain circumstances that makes it all right in our case. 
Oh, if we could just see ourselves, as we would see others 
doing the same thing! My duty as a pastor and a minister 
of the Gospel is always to ask myself this question : What 
would I think of every minister of the Gospel in this 
world, if he did just exactly as I am doing? That is the 
only way I can see myself as I ought ; and the only way 
you can see yourself as you ought, is just to ask yourself 
the question. Now then if my brother, my neighbor, would 
do just exactly as I am doing, what would I think of him? 
The man that thinks he must stand is the man that gets 
the false idea that he can do what others cannot do and 
stand. Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest 
he fall. My dear friends, if over five hundred and ninety- 
nine thousand people fell of the Israelites, there may a 
couple of hundred fall in this audience. Beware that you 
do not think you are standing and cannot fall. 

III. There is still a third class. There are many 
who fall because they think they cannot stand. "There 
hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to 
man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be 
tempted above that ye are able, but will with the tempta- 
tion also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to 
bear it." 

Those that think they cannot stand are the ones who 
think that they have temptations such as the world has 
never had. How often a man thinks, Now my temptation is 



608 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

an unusual one; there never was a man in all the world 
tempted as I am; and, going on that conclusion he says, 
well, I must fall. Paul writes down a sentence I wish 
you could all write down in your hearts and keep for- 
ever. "There hath no temptation taken you but such as 
is common to man." Your temptation is mine, and mine 
is yours. We all have the same temptations, if not just 
of the same character, they are equal in their downing 
power. 

The next mistake we make sometimes is this, that we 
think our temptations have absolutely no limit, and that 
God is not helping us. Have you ever felt that Avay, that 
your temptation has got such control now that surely God 
has forsaken you, and it is impossible to try any more, 
I must yield? Paul writes again on your memory, never 
to forget it : "God is faithful who will not suffer you to 
be tempted above that ye are able." God never tempted 
you any more than you needed. If you are a mechanic and 
have made a machine of am^ kind, when it is done you test 
it, and if it isn't worth testing, it isn't worth having. 
When God in His love allows you to be tried and tested, 
and then you say, I cannot stand it, you are a worthless 
machine; you are not fit to live in this world. That is 
why so many people fall; they will not try to stand the 
test; they think they cannot, and consequently they think 
there is no use trying to escape. They think, what is the 
use? God gave me certain desires and I will fulfil them; 
if I have got a weakness it is not my fault ; it is inherited ; 
I will go and satisfy it; there is no use trying; I T\ill 
fall anyway, and so I will fall; I cannot stand. Paul 
says. Don't argue that way; that is the devil's arguiricnt. 
This same God who is faithful will with the temptation 
also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. 
Good news ! a way to escape ! and God will show you how. 

Now, my dear friends, in conclusion, let me see if I 
cannot show my c^oul and your soul how to escape in times 
of temptation. 

One of the very first things we must recognize in this 
world is this, that the greatest blessings lie right close 
to the greatest temptations. Show me a Savior and I 



NINTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 609 

will show you a Satan tempting Him. Show me a Christ 
going over the Holy Land preaching the Gospel of salva- 
tion, and I will show you by His side the devil possessing 
men, women and children. Show me a great blessing in 
yourself and I will show you a great temptation right by 
the side of it. And that is why so many Christians fall. 
They think, well now, I am regenerated; I am a new 
creature, a child of God, and consequently there is no 
danger ; I will not fall ; I will stand. My dear friend, if 
you were not a child of God, what would be the use of 
the devil tlirowing you down? Just because you are a 
child of God comes the wrestle, and if nearly six hundred 
thousand men were overthrown in the wilderness, and 
that was an ensample for you, then, my dear friends, re- 
member that your great blessings lie right close to the 
greatest temptations. 

Let me illustrate what I mean : Over in Allen County 
a few years ago, I took dinner with a man. He sat by my 
side, and he said, "There is one thing in the world that 
I never allow myself to do, and I have never had any temp- 
tation to do if I said, "What is it?" He said, "I never 
dance; I never care anything about it." Then I looked 
at the man, and I saw he was not able to walk, because he 
was a cripple. I thought, Poor man, you could not dance 
if you Avanted to. And I thought to myself, if you were 
as nimble as I am, and enjoyed music as I do, and could 
hardly keep quiet when you hear music, you would say 
you have had the temptation to dance. I would rather 
dance than eat. Why? Because I love it. The blessing 
of a strong body, physically developed, and every nerve 
a string, will dance in the dark, if you give it a chance. 

A lady said to me one day, "I have got no use at all 
for that Miss So-and-so; she has made a woeful mistake 
in life and she had no business to fall ; I would not have 
fallen as she did." Tlien I looked at her old homely face 
and I said, "Well, you have got a reason for not falling; 
DO man ever looked at you„" She could not help it. I am 
not finding fault with her face. Oh, what a blessing it 
would have been for many a woman if she had had a 

39 



610 THE ETERx\AL EPISTLE. 

homely face! but don't tell me that a woman wdth a 
homely face and a bad pliysical development has got the 
same battle in life that another one has, the pride of the 
city. Close to her blessings in life lie the greatest tempta- 
tions. And unless we recognize these facts that I am giv- 
ing you this evening, we will fall. 

The way to escape is to recognize that the greater 
the temptation is, the greater the blessing must be. 
Satan's masterpiece means Christ by his side. A strong 
blow to knock a man down by Satan, means a mighty 
soldier of God if he does not fall. And that is the first 
step to escape temptation. 

Another way of escape is to pray without ceasing. 
An Indian who one time received a large package of to- 
bacco, after opening it found some money, and began to 
debate. Shall I keep the money or shall I not? And finally 
he made up his mind that he would take the tobacco back 
to the owner and give the money back to him. When he 
came the owner said to the Indian, "What made you bring 
the money back?'' "Why," said he, "I have got two men 
in me; when I first found the money, the one man said. 
Keep it; then the other man said. You have no right to 
it ; and they began to fight, and they fought day and night, 
and," he said, "one day I just settled the quarrel; I said, 
Here, you two men ; I am going to take that money back ; 
and they quit fighting." That was the way the Indian 
told the story that I want to tell you now. There is a 
God in heaven who has planted a conscience in our hearts 
and souls and that God has said. Pray without ceasing; 
and He has taught us to say. Lead us, not into temptation. 
And do you ask why so many people fall? Because they 
go into dangerous places and say. Lead me not into temp- 
tation. Their prayer is. Lead me not; let me go. The 
Christian prays. Lead me, not into temptation. Do you 
see the difference? And then the child of God that wants 
to escape doesn't pray in the morning. Lead me, not into 
temptation, and in the afternoon plunge into it. A man 
can pray right up to the point, within two minutes of the 
instant he falls. The mistake we make is that we do not 
pray when we are falling. 



NINTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 611 

A third way to escape is for us to remember that the 
opportunities for doing good are a thousand times greater 
than the opportunities for doing evil. Why do men fall? 
Because they are making opportunities to fall. And when 
you find yourself laying a plan that means an opportunity 
to sin, right there is your chance to escape. Cut off the 
opportunity. It is a great deal easier to preach than to 
practice. We sometimes imagine that the places to do 
good in the world are only a few, and the chances to do 
evil are so many. It is not true. The devil has blinded 
us. The fact is, it is terribly hard to find a place to sin. 
It is terribly hard to sin. Oh, what a battle people will 
make to sin; and yet it may be that you can only find 
half a dozen places in the world that you can sin the sin 
that you want to sin, while you can find ten thousand 
times ten thousand places to do good. There is no other 
thing in all the Avorld that is driving so many people to 
destruction as this notion of having our bo^-s and girls 
these days do nothing until they are through High School. 
If our boys and girls were compelled to work hard, not 
only work, but work until they are so tired in the even- 
ing they would go to bed to sleep instead of running 
around over the streets at night and planning means to 
destroy others, our characters would be far better estab- 
lished. Then, my friends, make yourselves a thousand op- 
portunities to do good, and cut off the opportunities to do 
evil, and God has made a way for you to escape. 

And then let us not forget the history of the past. 
Our text tells us that this story of the Israelites is given 
us in the Bible as a warning, as an admonition, to us wbo 
are living in the last days of the world. My friends, have 
you not seen enough of what it means to fall, to \Aakr-n 
up? If six hundred thousand men, with the exception of 
two, fell, isn't it time that you and I are waking up? 
Little does the devil care if I preach the Gospel for fifty 
years if in the end he can make all those whom I led to 
Christ say, he fell. Tlie victory is then for hell. Let me 
urge upon you this morning to notice that David did fall, 
that Peter did fall, that Judas did fall, and that your 



612 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

own relatives did fall, and unless you watch out you 
will fall. 

The last way of escape that I will give you this even- 
ing is to keep in mind day and night, Christ and Him 
crucified. You do not generally find that people sin very 
much around a corpse in the house; you do not find that 
they sin very much in a hospital where they hear the moan- 
ing and the groaning and suffering; and if you will re- 
member Jesus on the cross crying out, "My God ! My God, 
why hast Thou forsaken Me?" and remember that He is 
doing this for the fallen that they might stand and not 
fall; Oh, my friends, if you will make up your minds to 
do what sinning you do up on Calvary's hill, under the 
bleeding gore of your Savior ; if you will keep before your 
eyes day and night Jesus dying for the very sins you are 
thinking of committing, the way to escape the temptation 
will appear and you will be free. 

May God bless these words this evening to our souls' 
eternal good. May He help us to grow in grace, and to 
pray as we never did pray before, for purity of heart, for 
purity of life, that we may spend eternity in the presence 
of those who knew they could not stand by their own 
power, and kne^\' that they could not fall when they held 
tightly to the hand of Jesus. Amen. 

PRAYER. 

Lord our God, we thank Thee for the plain message of the even- 
ing, and we do thank Thee that we know we physically stand before 
Thee now, but that Thou hast given us a message which will help us 
to stand spiritually to the end of life if we will listen to this voice and 
obey it. O God, do Thou bless this congregation, and all our congre- 
gations. Give us faithful pastors, fearless pastors. Give us men of God 
who proclaim the truth as it is in Thy Word. We ask Thee to go 
with us through this night. Bless us in our going out and coming in. 
Feed our souls on the bread of life, and O God, help that all of us 
may reach the Canaan of eternal rest; and on our way let us pray as 
Thou hast taught us : 

Our Father who art in heaven ; H'allowed be Thy name ; Thy 
kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven; Give 
us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation; 
But deliver us from evil; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



TENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 

Inexcusable Ignorance. 

1 Cor. 12:1-11. 

■^LTOW concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you 
I ^1 ignorant. Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto 
y these dumb idols, even as ye were led. Wherefore I give you 

to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus 
accursed : and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the 
Holy Ghost. Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. 
And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And 
there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh 
all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to 
profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; 
to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith 
by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; 
to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another 
discerning of spirits ; to another divers kinds of tongues ; to another 
the interpretation of tongues : But all these worketh that one and the 
selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Dearly Beloved: 

The Corinthians were not an ignorant people, but 
noted for their intelligence. Paul says in the beginning 
of this letter: "I thank my God always on your behalf, 
for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ, 
that in everything ye are enriched by Him, in all utter- 
ance, and in all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ 
was confirmed in you : so that ye come behind in no gift." 
But, like many intelligent people, they were full of con- 
tentions. They depended so much on their natural gifts 
that they hindered their spiritual growth. They went to 
church more to hear an eloquent preacher than to serve 

613 



614 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

Christ. They made a human feast of the Holy Supper. 
They were inexcusably ignorant with all their natural 
gifts. Paul insists upon a better state of conditions in the 
church. The first verse is the trumpet sound for liberty : 
"I would not have you ignorant.'' Again he says : "I give 
you to understand." He knows that they should and 
could know better — that they are guilty of 

INEXCUSABLE IGNORANCE. 

I. It is inexcusable ignorance not to knoio one^s self. 
Adam and Eve were created in God's image and were good 
and holy. Satan, that proud angel, rebelled against God, 
and caused our first parents to sin, and that sin caused 
spiritual death, and the wages of that sin was bodily 
death, and ever since this world has been a double grave- 
yard — death for the soul and death for the body. There 
is no excuse for any one to be ignorant of this truth in 
a land of Bibles and Christian churches. 

Nor is there any excuse for our not knowing that our 
forefathers were heathen. "Ye know that ye were Gen- 
tiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were 
led." These Corinthians knew that Paul had first 
preached the Gospel in Europe, and that Lydia was the 
first Christian, and that IMacedonia had sent the mission- 
ary to them to preach Christ crucified to them. They 
could point to the false gods all around them which they 
themselves had worshipped. They could point to living 
parents and friends who carried and led them to idol wor- 
ship. They had just come from the blackness of darkness 
to the brightness- of light — the Light of the world. There 
was absolutely no excuse for them not to know what their 
fathers were, and there is no excuse for us not to know 
who our forefathers were. There are historical marks all 
over Europe today where our forefathers worshipped idols, 
and there are rocks and knives of stone to show where and 
how they cut off human heads to appease their gods. Had 
it not been for the missionaries who came to our fore- 
fathers with the Gospel, we would all be heathen today — 



TENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY, 615 

possibly offered already as a sacrifice to some unknown • 
god. 

Know thyself. Know that you were born of sinful 
flesh. "That which is born of flesh is flesh," said Jesus. 
We may not like to hear it, but we are all born heathen. 
"Ye must be born again." Jesus knows us. Read the 
third chapter of John and know yourselves. 

II. In the next place it is inexcusable ignorance 
not to know who the true and living God is. 

God hath given us brain to think. A thinker knows 
that God could make Himself known. The book of nature 
tells us plainly that God is almighty, wise, and good. 
Creation forces us to acknowledge a Creator. The maker 
is always greater than the thing made. Knabenshue has 
just sailed around the capitol of this state with his air- 
ship. The air-ship was in the mind of Knabenshue be- 
fore it sailed in the air. The inventor is greater than the 
invention. Thus God, the Creator, is greater than crea- 
tion, and we know that He could make Himself known. 

And just because He could, God would make Himself 
known. It was absolutely necessary for the King of kings 
and the Lord of lords to make Himself known to His sub- 
jects. Creation demands a Revelation. 

This leads me now to the third link of the chain of a 
sane mind : God has made Himself known. "Wherefore I 
give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit 
of God calleth Jesus accursed; and that no man can say 
that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." The born 
heathen does not make himself a Christian. The true and 
living God revealed Himself as Father, Son and Holy 
Ghost in His Word. We find Him in the first two verses of 
the Bible. God, the Elohim, Hebrew plural form of God, 
made the heavens and the earth, and the Spirit of God 
moved upon the face of the waters. This Triune God said : 
Le us make man in our image. The angels praised this Tri- 
une God by singing three times : Holy, holy, holy. Aaron 
was commanded to say Lord three times in pronouncing 
the blessing. We were baptized in the name of the Father, 
Son and Holy Ghost. We have just confessed our faith in 
Him ; and when we were confirmed we vowed to be faithful 



616 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

to Him till death. It would seeln from all this that there 
ought to be no question in this enlightened age about who 
God is, and yet there are Christians, yea, even ministers 
of the Gospel, who are uniting in worship with Jews and 
Gentiles, who ignorantly deny our Savior and simply 
acknowledge what every Hottentot knows, that there is a 
Supreme Being. Satan never denied that there is a Su- 
preme Being. Such ignorance among a so-called Christian 
people is inexcusable in this enlightened age. Christians 
should surely know the true and living God and take no 
part in devil-worship. 

III. This leads me to say that it is inexcusable igno- 
rance not to know the true source of all spiritual gifts. 

"Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would 
not have you ignorant." And what was the ignorance of 
those Corinthians? They did not seem to know that 
spiritual gifts were the gifts of the Holy Spirit. They 
did not seem to know that the Holy Spirit divided His 
gifts, and they did not seem to know that God operates 
His gifts in man. 

We cannot be Christians unless we cling to Christ 
and accept Him as our Savior and Lord ; but this we can- 
not do except by the Holy Spirit. We can say Jesus, as 
the ungodly do, by the power of Satan, but we cannot "say 
that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." When 
Jesus is our Lord then we are His subjects and obey Him. 
The gift to believe in Jesus belongs to the Holy Spirit. 
"I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength 
believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him, but the 
Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me 
with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith." 
— Luther's Catechism. 

It is inexcusable ignorance to think that any one of 
us possesses all of the Holy Spirit's gifts. To one is given 
special wisdom in spiritual matters. To one is given 
special knowledge of His Word. To another is given a 
heroic faith to do what others would consider impossible. 
To another is given a special power to direct all the sick 
to God as the healer. To another is given a special gift 
to translate the Bible into many languages, but when the 



TENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 617 

Holy Spirit divides these gifts among His children, He 
does not let go of them — they are still His. 

He keeps His hand on His gifts in man. We may die 
but His gifts live on. We are to use His gifts, but He 
uses us to operate them. We must remain humble and 
give Him all the glory. Let me repeat the last sentence, 
for it is the key to this text. We must remain humble and 
give God all the glory. "Now there are diversities of 
gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of 
administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diver- 
sities of operations, but it is the same God .which worketh 
all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to 
every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the 
Spirit the word of wisdom ; to another the word of knowl- 
edge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same 
Sj)irit; lo another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; 
to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; 
to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of 
tongues ; to anotlier the interpretation of tongues ; but all 
these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing 
to every man severally as He will." Amen. 



ELEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 

Bom Out of Due Time. 

1 Cor. 15 :1-10. 

MOREOVER, brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel which I 
preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein 
ye stand; by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory 
what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I de- 
livered unto you first of all that which I also received,, how that Christ 
died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, 
and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures: and 
that He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve : after that He was seen 
of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part re- 
main unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that He was 
seen of James; then of all the apostles. And last of all He was seen 
of me also, as one born out of due time. For I am the least of the 
apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted 
the church of God. But by the grace of God. I am what I am: and 
His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I labored 
more abundantly than they all ; yet not I, but the grace of God which 
was with me. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved in Christ: — 

We have just heard the Gospel of the day, how two 
men went into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and 
the other a publican. The Pharisee thanked God that 
he was so much better than his fellowmen, so much bet- 
ter than the publican. The publican would not look up 
as the Pharisee did; he did not strike at others as the 
Pharisee did, but struck at his own breast, at his own 
heart, at the seat of sin, and cried out in all humility, 
God be merciful to me a sinner! In harmony with that 
publican in the epistle for this day we find Paul the 

618 J a 



ELEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 619 

publican, — not proud Saul riding into Damascus, but 
humble Paul, feeling the terrible sin of persecuting the 
church of God, feeling that he has wasted so many years 
of his life, and that God in His mercy has saved him as 
by a miracle from heaven, he cries out, with the same 
spirit of the publican of old : O God, be merciful to me, 
a spiritual bastard — born out of due time! "And last 
of all He was seen of me also, as of one bom out of due 
time." May the Holy Spirit bless us in this hour, while 
we are noticing many who are 

BORN OUT OF DUE TIME, 

I. There are infants that are not born again and 
surely when they become children of God they are born 
out of due time. The new birth is a necessity, says Christ,, 
to enter the kingdom of heaven. Every one must be born 
again. From these words we learn clearly that every 
child must be born again before it can enter heaven. 
The new birth is therefore not only a possibility in in- 
fancy but a necessity. If that child is to be saved, it must 
be born again. These are the words of Jesus Christ. 
Nowhere has He said that a child will be lost, and no 
church has ever taught it, but the Word of God does 
clearly teach that the child must be born again before it 
can enter heaven. And if this is true, as it is, then, my 
friends, the little child that is not given to the Lord, is 
born out of due time. 

The little infant that is not born again is harmed;: 
it is a detriment to the parents and to the kingdom of God- 
It is a harm to the infant itself not to have it bap- 
tized, for Jesus said: Verily, verily, I say unto you, ex- 
cept a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot en- 
ter the kingdom of heaven; showing us clearly not only 
the necessity of the new birth, but God^s plan by which 
we shall have it born again. Now then, if the new birth 
is possible for the infant, and it is necessary in order to 
enter heaven, then let me ask you whether it is not harm- 
ful to that child to let it lie in your cradle unbaptized- 



620 THE ETEENAL EPISTLE. 

Isn't it a harm to let that child remain in its natural 
state? When we are by nature the children of wrath, 
what can we expect of these little children if we never 
have them brought to the Savior? 

And not only is it a harm to the child itself, but it is 
a detriment to the parents. Parents should know that 
they have a responsibility resting upon them. The mo- 
ment a little child is born into that family they should 
know that that little child is either born to give them 
great joy or great trouble. If it is possible to bring that 
child to the Lord Jesus to have it born again in due time, 
then by what right should we wait and have the natural 
heart develop to cause trouble in the future? I am not 
here to say that every baptized child will ever be a good 
Christian^ but I am here to sa^^ that if a little infant 
brought to the Savior by Holy Baptism and trained in 
the nurture and admonition of the Lord turns out badly, 
it would have turned out worse yet if it had not been 
brought to the Savior; and consequently you are only 
heaping up trials and troubles for yourself if you let that 
child grow up in its natural state, which means enmity 
to God and enmity to His holy laws. 

It means a detriment to the kingdom of heaven. If 
there is anything plainly taught in the Bible it is this, 
that the Gospel should first be preached in Jerusalem and 
then to the ends of the world ; that the Gospel should first 
be preached to the parents, and they are to bring their 
children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. 
If there is anything plainly taught by our Savior before 
He ascended to heaven, it is this, that this Gospel Avhich 
Paul preached at Corinth should be preached to the ends 
of the world, and that all the nations should hear of Jesus 
that they might be saved. Now, if Christian parents are 
not going to rear Christian children, pray tell me, how 
shall the world ever be won for Christ? Look around in 
the churches of this country and you will find many a 
father and many a mother giving of their hard-earned 
money for foreign missions, singing about Christ for the 
world, telling of the wonderful things that should be done 
for the heathen, and when you come right down to the 



ELEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 621 

truth, they are rearing heathen at their own tables; 
the J are making beds for heathen in their own homes ; they 
are absolutely refusing to carry out the command of God 
that these little children should be brought to Him and 
trained up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. 
Is it any wonder the kingdom of heaven is suffering on 
earth with boys and girls in Christian homes unbaptized; 
with children in Christian homes not instructed; with 
children growing up worse than heathen — because the 
poor heathen would accept Christ if they were given an 
opportunity, but in our Christian land we are rearing 
heathen by the thousands. Oh, the kingdom of heaven is 
suffering because of the fact that so many infants are not 
born again! 

II. Again, some are born out of due time when they 
are born again but not instructed in God's Word. Ee- 
member that the new birth is the beginning of the Chris- 
tian life. If I were to ask you today what you know 
about your birth, you would have to depend almost en- 
tirely upon the testimony of your parents and a few of 
your friends; you remember nothing about it. The new 
birth is not experimental religion; the new birth is the 
seed of life sown into your heart that springs up, and, 
nurtured, makes you a full grown Christian. How many 
people there are that are brought to the Savior in in- 
fancy and dedicated to Him in the name of the Father, 
Son and Holy Ghost; then the little child is taken home 
and that is the end of it. The Bible forever remains a 
sealed Book to them; the catechism is to them a sealed 
book; they have nothing to remember, for they never re- 
ceived anything. And so, my friends, they are born out 
of due time. 

The apostle Paul calls attention to the fact that the 
Word of God is the established guide in life: "For I de- 
livered unto you first of all that which I also received, 
how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scrip- 
tures." Again he says: "And that He was buried, and 
that He arose again the third day according to the Scrip- 
tures." Twice in that little epistle Paul calls attention 
to the Old Testament, for remember the New Testament 



622 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

was not yet written. This epistle to the Corinthians was 
one of the first writings of the New Testament. The two 
epistles to the Thessalonians were the very first ; the next 
to the Corinthians. This epistle was written before 
Matthew, Mark, Luke and Jolm, or any part except those 
mentioned. When Paul therefore speaks of the Scrip- 
tures, he means the Old Testament; and he calls atten- 
tion to the great truth that Jesus Christ died according 
to the Old Testament and rose again according to the Old 
Testament. How many people there were in those days 
as there are to-day who do not know what is in the more 
complete Bible, the Old and the New. When people are 
simply brought to the Savior and baptized and never in- 
structed any further, this Book is a sealed Book, for they 
know not what the Old Testament says about the death of 
Christ; they know not what it says about His resurrec- 
tion ; they know neither what the prophets said, nor what 
the evangelists proclaimed, nor what Paul wrote in his 
great epistles. If you do not know what is in God's Book 
you are born too late; you are born out of due time. 

Not only should the Bible be an open Book to us, 
but the holy catechism, which is the little Bible taken out 
of the big Bible, should be an open book. When Paul 
says here: "Christ died for our sins .... that He was 
buried, and that He rose again the third day according 
to the Scriptures," we almost hear him repeating the 
Apostles' Creed. In all of these epistles Paul warns the 
people not to forget the doctrines which he taught them : 
"Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel, which 
I have preached unto you, which also ye have received, 
and wherein ye stand; by which also ye are saved if ye 
keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have 
believed in vain." He shows them very clearly that they 
were not ignorant ; that he had taught them to know God's 
Word. There was a time when they were well catechized, 
and the warning is, be careful that you do not forget w^hat 
you once had in your memory. And so, dear friends, there 
are many people in the present day yet that have been 
born again, but they have never been nurtured. If your 
little child is born healthy and well, and you do not take 



ELEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 623 

care of that child it will die; it needs nourishing day by 
day, and a father's and a mother's care. And just so a 
true Christian must not only be brought to the Savior and 
have the seed of eternal life planted into its heart by the 
Holy Spirit, and must be taught in the truth as we con- 
fess in the Word of God and in the catechism taken there- 
from. It should know the difference between the law and 
the Gospel ; it should know what the Gospel is, that it is 
the glad tidings that Jesus Christ has come into the 
world to save sinners; it should know that Jesus Christ is 
our Savior and through Him we have eternal life, and 
Him only. Take the false doctrines of the world ; they do 
not cling to any person ; they are simply cold statements ; 
but the religion of Jesus Christ cannot stand one moment 
without Jesus Christ Himself. Take Jesus Christ out of 
Christianity and there is no Christianity left. We cling 
not to things, but a person, that same person is the Lord 
Jesus Christ, yesterday, today and forever. The Gospel 
therefore clings to a living Savior, not a dead one ; a Savior 
that is present here, not over beyond the waters; a Savior 
that is in our hearts, and not one that dwells up on the 
right hand of God and there only. ^^Lo, 1 am with you 
alway, even to the end of tlie world!" If we do not have 
that personal Savior with us in this life; if we do not 
have the catechism an open book like the Bible, then we 
are born out of due time. 

I would go on just one step further and say, If we 
have not got the Gospel, how can we keep it? "By which 
also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached 
unto you, unless ye have believed in vain." Suppose I 
were to ask you today to give me one hundred Bible pas- 
sages that you committed when a child, could you do it? 
It may be that a few of you could; it may be there are 
many of you that cannot give me one promise readily 
without going to the Bible; that you cannot give me one 
word of comfort unless you have the book to read. It 
may be that your mind is filled with a thousand facts con- 
cerning this world, but not with a single fact concerning 
eternity. Brethren, let us beware that we do not live in 
this world born out of due time. Let not our minds be- 



624 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

come a blank without the Word of God written thereon. 
We are the living epistles of the Master. 

III. Then there is a third class born out of due 
time. Those that want to be born again just before they 
die. There are many people who do not want to live 
Christians, and they do not want to die children of the 
devil. Their whole plan is to serve the devil just as much 
as they dare until the hour that they must be saved if they 
are ever going to be; and it does seem to me that when 
people are brought to the Savior in their last years and 
their last hours, they must certainly have a regret that 
goes with them into eternity ; and therefore if the apostle 
Paul who was converted in his later age, felt that he was 
born out of due time, surely every one who becomes a 
Christian in the last days of his life, must feel intensely 
the fact that he was born a little too late, born out of the 
regular time in which God intended him to be born. 

And how is it about these late conversions? Thank 
God that there are late conversions! Thank God that 
those who have not attended to these things in time, have 
yet time in the last hour! But let us ask the question, 
what is the rule with regard to those who come to Christ 
in their last days? Many of them have no time any more 
to show their humility. Paul was a very humble man, 
and said to his people, "I am the least of the apostles.'^ 
Dear friends, would you say so? Compare Paul, the great 
missionary, with all the others; would you say he is the 
least? No, I fear you would say just the opposite. Paul, 
you are greater than John, greater than Peter, greater 
than Luke, greater than all of them. But only a few 
born out of due time will ever acknowledge: I am not 
worthy to be called a child of God. 

Those that are born out of due time, in the last hour, 
are also those who rarely know how much harm they have 
done. Paul seemed to realize it. "I persecuted the church 
of God!'' That was one thing that Paul could never for- 
get. God in his mercy saved him, and he never forgot 
the mighty grace of God tliat did save him, but he never 
could get rid of this one thought: Oh, the harm that I 
have done! The harm, the harm, the harm tliat I have 



ELEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 625 

done to my beloved Lord! to my dear Savior! I fought 
against the most loving Master there ever was — my 
Church that loved me so dearly; I struck her in the face. 
I was full of wrath and determined to put the children of 
God in prison ! Oh, how it hurts me to think how I wan- 
dered aAvay from my true and living God! How I struck 
at His beloved Bride! Oh, that I could undo my life! 
Oh, that I hadn't persecuted the Church of God, helping 
the devil, and the Avorld, and the flesh! And now I am 
an apostle of Jesus! If I could only live my life over 
again! I am born out of due time. 

Oh, how many are sitting before me this evening who 
must feel what Paul did. The harm that I have done 
with my careless, reckless life. Not only sinned myself 
but taught others to sin. Not only went to the gates of 
liell myself, but coaxed others to go with me. 

The apostle Paul goes one step further, and makes 
up his mind he is going to redeem the time as much as 
possible. But how many are there that do try to redeem 
the time? How many are there that put on Christ in 
their old age and make up their minds. Now I am going to 
serve my God, do better, and try and make up the lost 
time? How often we find people in their old age coming 
into the kingdom of heaven, and that is the last you ever 
hear or see of them. They fear to testify ; they fear to go 
out and try to do something in their last days. Now^ then, 
if we are not born too late we ought to go to work as we 
never did before, and try in a measure to undo something 
of the wickedness we have done. The apostle Paul, recog- 
nizing that he had persecuted the church, makes up his 
mind, I have no time to lose; "But by the grace of God I 
am what I am; and His grace which was bestowed upon 
me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than 
they all; and yet not I, but the grace of God which was 
with me." 

I can see the apostle Paul on the day he was con- 
verted thinking about the past, and thinking about the 
future; I can see him as he looks back and says, Well, I 
have had quite a vacation in my life; I have been out of 

40 



626 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

my church all these years, opposing the Christ who called 
to me from heaven ; I have been serving the devil and the 
world ignorantly ; I have been going on the path of wrong; 
and here my life is largely spent ; but by the grace of God 
I wijl take no vacation now any more. I was not as great 
a man as John was. I did not fight for Christ as Peter 
did; I have not been with Him like Luke the physician; 
but I am going to do something that Luke, and John, and 
Peter and all of them together could not do. My 
years are few, but I am determined by the grace of God, 
with His help, to do more in the balance of my life than 
all the others could put together. I am not going to do 
it for my own glory ; I am not going to do it by my power ; 
but with power from on high, I shall now work as a man 
who realizes the wrong he did and the good that must be 
done, and must be done in a hurry. I will labor more 
abundantly than all of them put together, God helping 
me. Oh, that I could live my life over again! But it is 
gone — it is gone forever. The present is mine. O God, 
help me now to work ! No vacation till I die ! I hear one 
say, Paul, have you time to take a walk? No. Have you 
time to take a journey here? No. Have you time for a 
day's pleasure? No. Paul, what is the matter? I will 
tell you what is the matter, but you have got to walk along 
with me while I tell you; I have no time to stop. I have 
misspent so much of my life; I regret the fact so much, 
that by Thy help, O God, I am going to save souls day and 
night. Tell me to keep this tongue quiet? Not until the 
knife falls and severs my head from my body. Tell me I 
shall write no more? Let the chains clank on my arms; 
I am going to write until I die; I am going to make up 
lost time. Mj life has been a failure so far, but it shall 
not be a failure. God shall know and the world shall 
know that from the time I became a child of God, I gave 
my body and soul inlo the hands of the Master to work, 
work, work until I die, all out of pure thanksgiving for 
the mercy of God who had mercy upon me, Paul the pub- 
lican. Amen. 



ELEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 627 



PRAYER. 

O, our Father in heaven, do Thou help us to realize in this even- 
ing hour what it means to be born out of due time. O God, Thou 
knowest how many there are in the world who have gone astray, who 
never would have gone astray if they had been born again in time. O 
God, do Thou help those who are present tonight and have little children, 
to realize their responsibility to bring those infants to Thee in time, not 
too late, and train them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. 
O Father in heaven, help all of us to be more determined about the 
life we are now to live, not that we shall earn our salvation, for it is 
alone a gift of grace, but just because we are saved by grace, help us 
to work as if our very salvation and the salvation of the world depended 
upon our labor, and at the same time, when all is done, do Thou help 
us to say. Lord, Thy grace, Thy grace only, has saved me. Dear Father 
in heaven, do Thou help that Thy Gospel may spread to the ends of 
the earth, and that every home may do missionary work at its own 
altar. Father, hear this prayer and save us all by Thy Gospel. We ask 
it in Jesus' name, who taught us to pray: 

Our Father who art in heaven ; Hallowed be Thy name ; Thy 
kingdom come ; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven ; Give 
us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation; 
But deliver us from evil ; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



TWELFTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 

Letters of Recommendation. 

11 Cor. 3 :4-ll. 

HND such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: Not that 
we are sufficient of ourselves to think an3'-thing as of ourselves; 
but our sufficiency is of God; who also hath made us able min- 
isters of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the 
letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. But if the ministrations of 
death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children 
of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory 
of his countenance ; which glory was to be done away : how shall not 
the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministra- 
tion of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of 
rigliteousness exceed in glory. For even that which was made glorious 
had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth. For 
if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which re- 
maineth is glorious. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved in Christ: 

Corinth was a city of learning and the teachers from 
the surrounding cities had to come there with letters of 
recommendation or they could get no positions. The 
apostle Paul brought no letter with him. He came with 
the law and with the Gospel, and with these letters he 
there established the church of God. He calls attention 
to these things in the first verse of this chapter : "Do we 
begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some 
cH;hers, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of 
commendation from you? Ye are our epistle written in 
our hearts, known and read of all men. Forasmuch as 
ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ min- 

628 



TWELFTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 629 

istered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit 
of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshly- 
tables of the heart." 

The true minister of the Gospel does not need letters 
of recommendation from any church, nor to any church. 
The best letter I could ever get is this congregation. You 
are my epistles. These letters that we write with ink are 
generally shoved into some pigeon-hole and no one sees 
them but the one who receives them ; but you are epistles 
read on the streets, read in your business places, read 
wherever you go, and if you do not live as you are taught, 
you are a poor recommendation for me; if you do live as 
you are taught, you are the best letters that I can ever 
get. I wish to call attention this evening to 

LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION. 

The letters spoken of in this epistle are just two : 

I. The law. 
II. The Gospel. 

The law is a letter of God, and it is a glorious letter, 
and a letter unto death. The Gospel is also a letter of 
God, a more glorious letter, and a letter unto life. These 
two letters may the Holy Spirit write deeply on our hearts 
tonight. 

1. First of all, there is the law of God. ^^Not that 
we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of our- 
selves; but our sufficiency is of God; who also hath made 
us able ministers of the new testament, not of the letter, 
but of the spirit; for the letter killeth, but the spirit 
giveth life. But if the ministration of death, written and 
engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of 
Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for 
the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done 
away; how shall not the ministration of the spirit be 
rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation 
be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteous- 
ness exceed in glory." 

The apostle Paul calls attention to the fact that the 



630 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

law of God is the letter of God, written with His own 
linger. The Jews at this time were making a good deal 
of trouble in Corinth because they thought that the law 
was not honored as it should be. In spite of the fact that 
they had been led to Christ and accepted the Gospel, they 
were still trying to live according to the law of the Jews 
and Moses, basing all their hope of salvation on the keep- 
ing of the law. This was error, and the apostle Paul in 
order to show them their error, teaches them that while 
the liaw is God's letter, a glorious letter, it is a letter unto 
their condemnation, and then holds up the more glorious 
letter of the Gospel. The law of God is meant to be* God's 
letter. If there is anything in the Bible that should be 
called God's letter above everything else, it is that law 
which was written with God's own finger. Did not God 
trace every letter on the tables of stone before He handed 
the law to Moses? And when God did write that law on 
Mount Sinai, did He not trace the same letters that He 
had written in the hearts of Adam and Eve when He 
created them? Do you realize, as you sit before me to- 
night, that you have the trace of God's own letters in 
your heart? You know there is only one true and living 
God; you know that you should not take God's name in 
vain; you know in your own heart that it is your duty 
to remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy ; you know 
that it is your duty to honor your father and mother that 
it may be well with you, and you may live long in this 
world; you know that it is your duty not to kill, but to 
love your fellowmen, and even your enemies; you know 
that it is wrong to commit adultery or fornication; you 
know it is wrong to steal, or lie, or covet; you know in 
your own heart that God's finger has traced the letters 
that are in your own conscience and in your own heart. 
The Corinthians knew it, and Paul knew it, and no man 
will deny it. It is God's letter of commendation. 

That was a glorious letter. You remember the his- 
tory of the giving of the law, how it thundered and light- 
ened on Mount Sinai; how Moses in the presence of God 
had a face that shone so brightly that he had to cover it 
with a veil when he stepped down into the presence of the 



TWELFTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 631 

Israelites. That was a glorious laAv. No wonder he had 
to cover his face, standing so near to God. If you and I 
Avould dwell just a little nearer to God, our faces would 
^how it. 

It Avas not only a glorious letter, but this letter was 
R letter of condemnation. ^'How shall not the ministra- 
tion of the spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministra- 
tion of condemnation be glory, much more doth the min- 
istration of righteousness exceed in glory.'' And pre- 
vious to that the apostle says, that the letter killeth. We 
would not for a moment say this letter of condemnation, 
of the law was originally intended to kill ; on the contrary, 
the law of God offers life and salvation to every one who 
does perfectly keep it. If you were barn without sin 
and never did sin, you would be saved by the law. The 
law says, Be ye holy for I am holy. The law says, If you 
do not sin, you have life. If, therefore, I say once more, 
you had not been born in sin, and you never did sin, you 
would need no Savior. The glorious law would save you 
all. But mark you, what good does it do for a black man 
to hear that the white man is free? What good does it 
do the poor man to know that the millionaire has a free 
ride across the ocean? What good does it do a poor sin- 
ner, born in sin, and having transgressed the Divine law, 
to hear of this letter of condemnation, w^hen it says he 
that breaketh one of these commandments breaketh all; 
cursed is every one that keepeth not all these command- 
ments? This law, intended to give light, by its perfection, 
comes to the imperfect man and says, you are cursed. 
The same thing is true of all laws. The same law that 
keeps you and me out of prison chains and out of the 
penitentiary, is the same law that drives the guilty man 
behind the walls. Tlie same sun that makes yonder grass 
grow and brings forth the flowers and the buds when the 
roots are in the ground, shining on those roots turned up- 
side-down, will kill them. And thus you see how 
your blessing may become a curse. This letter of com- 
mendation, therefore, written on your heart, is the very 
commandment and the very letter that will condemn you. 
For that reason the apostle Paul writes this letter to the 



632 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

Corinthians and shows them that there is another letter 
that is also of God. 

II. "For inasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to 
be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with 
ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables 
of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart.'- 

He is writing this letter to Christians, to those who 
have been saved by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, he 
says, I want to call your attention to another letter of 
God. It is the letter of Christ. It is not the letter writ- 
ten over on Mount Sinai by the finger of the leather ; it is 
the letter written over on Calvary by the Son of God, who 
dipped His hand into His own blood and wrote there this 
wonderful letter : He that believeth and is baptized shall 
be saved. Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy 
laden, and I will give you rest. God so loved the world 
that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever be- 
lieveth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. 
As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death 
of the wicked, but that the Avicked should turn from his 
evil way and live. This also, my friends, is a letter of 
God. Oh, what a comfort it is to the poor sinner, con- 
demned by the letter of the law, to find another letter 
handed over to him by Jesus Christ, telling him that the 
blood of Jesus Christ the Son of God cleanseth us from all 
sin. The one letter says. Here are your sins. What will 
you do? Cursed is every one that transgresseth the law. 
Here comes the other letter and says, Jesus was cursed 
for that letter; Jesus was cursed for your sin that de- 
manded death; Jesus did die; that letter demands the 
punishment of eternal hell for those sins, and here is One 
that did suffer the agony of hell ; here is a letter that says, 
I made the atonement for your sins ; here is one that says. 
They are blotted out with My blood. And this letter the 
Christian must have, letters of commendation. 

Not only are both these letters, letters of God, but one 
is more glorious than the other. It is true that the thun- 
ders roared and the trumpet sounded and the lightnings 
flashed on Mount Sinai when the law was written by the 
finger of God ; bu.t let us not forget there is another mount- 



TWELFTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 633 

ain over there called Calvary; let us not forget that the 
heavens were darkened and that the graves gave up their 
dead when this other letter was written. Let us not for- 
get that the angels of heaven that accompanied the star 
of the east, and came down on the very plains of Bethle- 
hem, were interested in this second letter. And let us 
not forget that tlie great Commander and Ruler left us 
another message: Go ye into all the world and preach 
the Gospel to every creature, and make disciples of all 
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of 
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. For this is the more 
glorious letter of the two. 

"For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, 
much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed 
in glory. For even that which was made glorious had no 
glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth. 
For if that which Avas done away was glorious, much more 
that which remaineth is glorious." Yes, Moses came down 
from that mountain with the first letter and with his face 
shining ; Jesus Christ was up on the Mount of Transfigura- 
tion with the other letter and His whole body was shining. 

The former light has passed away ; the first light shall 
not live forever, but the light of the cross, the Gospel, 
shall shine on into all eternity. More glorious is the sec- 
ond letter than the first. 

The first letter killeth ; the second giveth life. "Not 
That we are sufficient of ourseJves to think anything as 
of ourselves ; but our sufficiency is of God ; who also hath 
made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the 
letter, but of the spirit ; for the letter killeth, but the spirit 
giveth ]ife." There you get the difference between the two 
letters. The law of God says, Keep Me and I will save 
you. But you have not kept the law. The same law says, 
I will condemn you. The second letter comes and says, 
You are condemned and I pronounce you free. Trust in 
the Savior and you shall be saved. The Holy Spirit takes 
the second letter and applies it to your heart and says, 
Take Christ as your Savior; trust fully in Him; your 
sufficiency is of God and not of yourself; trust in Him 



634 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

fully and you have peace with God, and then you are 
truly a child of God. 

Go forth, then my dear hearers, Godward. Our text 
tonight begins with the words : "And such trust have we 
through Christ to God-Avard.'' There is something in 
every man's heart that says after all, there is a hereafter ; 
there is something in every man's heart that says, there 
is a better way of living than I have lived; there is a bet- 
ter home somewhere than I have got; there is more com- 
fort than I have received so far; there is a God and there 
is a Avay to come to Him and that way is through Jesus 
Christ, Avho said, I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, 
and no man cometh to the Father but by Me. There is in 
every man's soul and in every man's heart a something 
that says, I am immortal; I am not dead when my body 
lies in the coffin; the old man, my body, is giving away, 
but there is something in me that is young ; there is some- 
thing in me that cannot die. The soul of an old man is 
as young as the soul of a child. The philosophers of old 
knew that the soul is immortal Avithout the Word of God, 
but they never could find the way. Christ has shown us 
the Avay. God has pointed it out to us in this letter of 
recommendation, showing us how to serve God and go 
God-Avard. Walk in His path and follow Him, and be 
faithful to Him until death that you may receive the 
croAvn of eternal life. And this very night God comes to 
us in His Holy Supper and says, I will come to you, and 
stand at tlie door of your heart and knock, and I will- 
sup with you and you with Me; I aaqII come to you that 
you may come to Me. There may be some here tonight 
whose hearts are heavy, Avho are troubled with this and 
that, and this same merciful God comes in this beautiful 
letter of commendation to you and says, "Let not your 
heart be troubled; ye belicA^e in God, believe also in Me." 
Til is is the good news, the Gospel, the glorious news of 
the letter of recommendation. May God bless you all, i» 
my prayer. Amen. 



THIRTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 

Who Hath Bewitched Us? 

Gal. 3:15-22. 

BRETHREN, 1 speak after the manner of men: Though it be but 
a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, 
or addeth thereto. Now to Abraham and his seed were the 
promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many, but as of one, 
And to thy seed, which is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant, 
that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four 
hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the 
promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no 
more of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise. Wherefore 
then servelh the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the 
seed should come to whom the promise was made ; and it was ordained 
by angels in the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator is not a mediator 
of one, but God is one. Is the law then against the promises of God? 
God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given 
life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the Scrip- 
ture halh concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus 
Christ might be given to them that believe. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth: 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved in Christ : — 

This world is full of unthankful people. People who 
ought to enjoy the liberty they have do not appreciate it. 
I think the most unthankful student I ever saw was one 
who was constantly supported by the church, an object of 
charity — always complaining that the meals were not 
fit to eat, and yet I had the pleasure of staying all night 
at his home, and while I have never complained about any 
meals in my life, I must say those Avere the poorest meals 
I ever ate; they came from the home of the boy who was 
constantly complaining that the good meals of charity 

635 



636 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

were not fit to eat. This young man was only a picture 
of thousands in our own country, however. We find men 
who are complaining about the wages of the country, com- 
plaining about the privileges of this land, and this and 
that, and yet they came from places in the old country 
where they could not earn one-third what they can here, 
and their homes were not nearly as good as they are here. 
Oh, the unthankful immigrants of our land ! 

Let us not forget that this is human nature. There 
were the slaves of Egypt, working under the lash of Phar- 
aoh's subjects. Those men were constantly complaining 
about their hard trials, and when God finally heard their 
prayers and sent Moses to deliver them, and they had 
crossed the Red Sea in safety, and were receiving bread 
from heaven every day, what did they do but murmur and 
complain and long to go back to slavery again! Unthank- 
ful Israelites! 

In our OAvn te:sit we find that the Galatians were a 
people to whom God sent the bread of life through the 
apostle Paul; they had been edified and learned to appre- 
ciate the Gospel, but it was only a short time until 
they were again willing to go back into the bondage of sin, 
and consequently Paul begins this chapter with the strik- 
ing phrase: "Oh, foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched 
you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes 
Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among 
you?" 

We might well say in these days that there are many 
foolish moralists, men who are trying to get to heaven by 
the fulfilling of the law, when they know that they can- 
not be saved by the law, but only by the Gospel ; and these 
moralists are not all found outside of the church. It is 
a question whether we are not all more or less Pharisees, 
more or less given to the idea that after all we shall earn 
our own salvation. I might call out this evening in the 
language of the apostle Paul : Who hath bewitched us? 
That will be our question tonight, which we desire to 
answer. May the Holy Spirit help us to see ourselves as 
we are, and to appreciate the libertj^ of the true Gospel. 



THIRTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 637 

WHO HATH BEWITCHED US? 

I. We know the truth. 
II. Why do we not obey the truth? 

I. We know the truth. Paul cried out : '^Oh, fool- 
ish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not 
obey the truth?'' and shows them that the truth had evi- 
dently been set before them. They knew it, and we know 
it. There are some things that we know. We know the 
truth of the law, and we know the truth of the Gospel. 

As to the law, we know how we got it ; we know what 
it is, and we know that it cannot save us. 

We know, first of all, how we got the law. The 
apostle, speaking of this law, says: "Brethren, I speak 
after the manner of men : Though it be but a man's cov- 
enant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or add- 
eth thereto. Now to Abraham and his seed were the prom- 
ises made. He saith not. And to seeds, as of many ; but as 
of one. And to Thy seed, which is Christ. And this I say, 
that the covenant that was confirmed before of God in 
Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years 
after, cannot disannul, that it ' should make the promise 
of none effect." In speaking of these four hundred and 
thirty years, the apostle refers to the time that the child- 
ren of Israel sojourned in Egypt, and you Avill remember 
after they passed over the Eed Sea, God gave them the 
written law on two tables of stone. Now this law 
given to them on two tables of stone Avas first written in 
their own hearts in the morning of creation, and was not 
only written on the two tables, but it was written by 
God's own finger, and preserved in the Word which shall 
stand, though heaven and earth shall pass away. They 
knew about this law, how it was received. 

They knew how this law was received, and they knew 
what it was. AVe know how it came to us, and we know 
what it is. We know that the first table demands of us 
to love God with all our hearts, with all our souls, with 
all our might, with all our strength. We know that God's 
law demands of us that we love our neighbor as ourselves. 



638 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

Or, to be more minute, in this law we know who the true 
and living God is, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ; we know 
that His name should not be taken in vain; we know that 
the Sabbath Day should be remembered and kept holy; 
we know our duty to our fathers and mothers ; none of us 
are ignorant on this point ; we know we have no right to 
hate our fellowmen; we have no right to take any one's 
life ; we know it is our duty to live pure and upright lives ; 
we know we have no right to take what is not our own; 
we know it is our duty to tell the truth, the whole truth, 
and nothing but the truth ; we know that to covet is a sin, 
a great crime before God. And we know another thing; 
we know that if we do not try to keep this law that the 
curse of it will come doAvn upon our children and chil- 
dren's children. For seven long years two men whom I 
know by name, were resting under the awful cloud of rob- 
bing their own bank, in Lima, Ohio. You have read the 
report during the past few days, how these men were 
caught who robbed the bank, and that the janitor was the 
man that helped in the robbery, for which the safe com- 
panies have offered sixteen thousand dollars of reward. 
The question has been for seven long years, how could any 
man break into a safe with a time lock. Night before last 
the man that actually robbed the safe told them how it 
was done. He stepped inside the safe and told them to 
lock the door; in just eight and one-half minutes after it 
was locked he was out. This same man tells us how he 
robbed those two Jews, who for seven long years have been 
looked upon as thugs and thieves of their OAvn bank, when 
they were innocent. Brethren, we are often doing people a 
great harm and great wrong by condemning them on cir- 
cumstantial evidence; and I believe the time has come 
that we never should condemn any one unless the testi- 
mony is absolute and without doubt. The reason I men- 
tion this — this young man that robbed that bank had a 
grandfather who was a Lutheran; that grandfather years 
ago left the Lutheran church because something was said 
that he didn't like; he never returned again; he reared 
three sons, each one of whom again had sons, and each 
one has now a son in the penitentiary, except the last, and 



THIRTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 639 

the third will have in a few weeks. He thought he did 
something wise when he stepped outside of the church of 
God and began to serve the devil; but he had learned 
when a young man, I the Lord thy God am a jeal- 
ous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon 
the children unto the third and fourth generation of them 
that hate Me. He knew it, and in spite of the fact that 
he knew it, he stepped out and brought the curse down 
upon his children and children's children, and so the third 
one is going to the Ohio Penitentiary in a few weeks to 
come, all because this man did not try to keep God's holy 
law. 

I say we not only know the origin of this law, how we 
got it; we know what it is, and we positively know that it 
cannot save any man. "For as many as are of the works 
of the law^ are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed 
is every one that continueth not in all things which are 
written in the book of the law to do them." Again it is 
said in our text: "Wherefore then serveth the law? It 
was added because of transgressions, till the seed should 
come to whom the promise was made ; and it was ordained 
by angels in the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator is 
not a mediator of one, but God is one. Ts the law then 
against the promises of God? God forbid; for if there 
had been a law given which could have given life, verily 
righteousness should have been by law. But the Scrip- 
ture hath concluded all under sin." We see from these 
words that the law of God will curse every man on earth, 
no difference who he is. The man that is born in sin is 
never able to keep a perfect law perfectly, and the law^ 
of God demands perfection, and is not satisfied with any- 
thing less. If you were to keep nine commandments per- 
fectly and were to break one, you would break all of them 
and sin against God. Kemember then, dear friends, that 
we know that by the law not one of us can be saved. 

We not only know the truth of the law, but we know 
the truth of the Gospel. 

We know the Gospel is older than the law. We know 
from God's own Word that before the foundation of the 
world was laid, we were called in Christ. That is the Gos- 



640 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

pel. We know from our text tonight that the promise of 
a Savior who was to be a mediator was given to Abraham 
before the law was given on Mount Sinai; and we know 
that when a man makes a will he makes it for himself, and 
when he signs it, no other man can change it; that 
will is made. I cannot make your will and you cannot 
make mine. When you have made your will no other 
man has got a right to alter that will. And just so when 
the Lord our God gave the promise to Abraham that 
through his seed the nations of the earth should be blessed, 
that this seed should be a mediator, there was a promise 
given that this mediator should not be simply man nor 
simply God, but God and man; for how could one be a 
mediator between the Father and mankind, if he were 
only man, or if He were only God? We are asked to take 
the God-man, the One who as God can take hold of the 
Father's hand and say, I am Thy Son, and yet can reach 
down and take hold of the hand of humanity and say, I 
am the Son of man. The Son of man is come to seek and 
to save that which is lost. This promise of the Savior was 
given long ago, and we know it. 

We not only know how the Gospel originated, but we 
know what it cost. This Mediator had to lay down His 
life to purchase this Gospel for us. If you want to know 
what this Gospel is worth, then look over on Calvary's 
hill and see your Savior carrying His cross; see, when the 
gross is planted, who it is that hangs there with His hands 
and feet pierced, and the crown of thorns upon His head! 
See Him hang there for three long hours under the bright 
and burning sun, that you may know that this is the Son 
of God; and then see the sun go down at noon; see in 
the darkness there that all nature proclaims this is really 
the Son of God. Hear Him moan and groan all alone bear- 
ing the sin of the world. Hear Him cry out after six 
hours on that cross, My God! My God, why hast Thou 
forsaken Me? Kemember, He had to become your Re- 
deemer and mine ; He had to bear our curse upon Himself, 
so that He, Himself, felt the curse. Listen to these words 
again : "For as many as are of the works of the law are 
under the curse : for it is written, Cursed is every one that 



THIRTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 641 

continuetli not in all things Avhich are written in the book 
of the law to do them. But that no man is justified by 
the law in the sight of God, it is evident, for, The just 
shall live by faith; and the law is not of faith, but the 
man that doeth them shall live in them. Christ hath re- 
deemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse 
for us, for it is written. Cursed is every one that hangeth 
on a tree.'' You will never understand those words which 
I have just quoted from Jesus Christ, unless you remem- 
ber that if you had been hanging there for six long hours, 
sinner that you are, you would have cried out. My God! 
My God, why hast Thou forsaken me? Now the innocent 
Christ, in order to become your Kedeemer and mine, to 
pay the price, had to feel our curse upon Him, the curse 
of the whole world, and therefore, felt God forsake Him. 
And I ask you to look at ffim when He bows His head in 
death and says. It is finished. Look at Him as they take 
Him down off of the cross and lay Him in a borrowed 
grave. What is this? What does it mean? It means 
this is the price that the great Mediator paid for the sins 
of the world. That is what the Gospel cost, my dear 
friends, and we know it. 

We not only know the truth of the Gospel as to its 
origin and worth, but we know what it offers to us. This 
same Gospel comes to you and to me, poor, lost, condemned 
sinners, and says, You cannot be saved by the law; you 
are cursed; but here is One that has fulfilled the law for 
you. It is Christ. He wants to save you. He comes to 
you with open hands and a heart full of mercy and says, 
I want to forgive you. Dear lost soul, I want to save you. 
Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden and 
I will give you rest. And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all 
men unto Me. This Savior cursed, bearing your curses 
and mine, cries out : Look unto Me, and be ye saved, 
all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none 
else. Dear friends, that is what the Gospel is : He that 
believeth and is baptized shall be saved. You know this, 
and I know it. 

2. Then let me ask the question, Why do we not 

41 



642 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

obey this truth? Why do we not obey the truth of the law 
and why do we not obey the truth of the Gospel? 

As to the law, why do we not accept the condemna- 
tion of the whole world? We talk about the poor heathen, 
and we talk about the necessity of preaching the Gospel, 
but I am afraid in our general actions we do not believe 
what we say, when we positively know from our own ob- 
servation and history that a large portion of the world 
has never heard of Christ yet ; when we know that a large 
number of people in the world are living today in utter 
darkness and have never heard the blessings of the Gospel, 
how can we be satisfied in doing what we are doing for 
missions? Now the law of God condemns every man on 
earth. Not a single soul has ever kept the law perfectly. 
The poor heathen are under condemnation and we know it. 
If we know it, why do we not obey? If you knew there 
was a man five miles from here tonight under a great 
weight, and your rolling the weight away would save his 
life, you would run to save him; but we hear the news 
every day of our lives of the millions and millions living 
in total darkness, and we sit down in our own beautiful 
church and sing songs of praise, and we pray, and when 
it comes to sending men to proclaim the Gospel, we are 
not doing it. Why will we not obey the truth ? Who hath 
bewitched us? Who hath so convinced us it is our duty 
to do nothing, when everything tells us of the duty to do 
more? Why do we not accept what God's Word so plainly 
proclaims, that all are under the curse of the law? "But 
the Scripture hath conluded all under sin, that the prom- 
ise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that 
believe.'' 

Not only do I ask why we do not accept that condem- 
nation of the whole world, but why do we not accept the 
Divine law and obey it, as a rule of life? I do not say 
you will be saved because you keep the law, because it 
isn't true; you cannot keep it perfectly; but I do say 
because you are saved you ought to try your best to keep 
that law, because it is the law of perfection; and yet it 
does seem to me that so many of us are not trying to keep 
this law. How many people are there that are still de- 



THIRTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 643 

bating between the true God and the unknown God? How 
many people there are that still will curse and swear and 
take God's name in vain, even though they call themselvs 
Christians? How many people there are that are living 
every Sunday as if God were a liar, as if His Word were 
not true, as if they never heard at all: Kemember the 
Sabbath Day to keep it holy. Oh, who hath bewitched 
us? Why will we not obey truth? We all know that we 
should treat father well; we know that we should treat 
mother well, and yet often young people disobey their 
parents. Oh, who hath bewitched you? Don't you know 
the truth, and do you not knoAv what God's Word demands 
of you? We know that we should love each other, but 
how much hatred, how much jealousy, how many mean 
things are said of our betters. Oh, who hath bewitclied 
us? Why can we not love one another? And oh, how 
often we live lives that are not pure in God's sight. Why 
do we not obey God's command, and why not try to live 
upright lives? How many people there are who still try 
to take advantage of the others in business, when they 
know we should not steal. Why do we not take God's 
commandments and try to keep them? How many people 
will tell a lie just to tell a story, or to make it suit any 
case, when they know that Gad said. Thou shalt not bear 
false witness against thy neighbor. Why will we act like 
him who is the father of lies? Why not tell the truth? 
And why such coveting? Why such a miserable reputation 
for giving? Why are Ave willing to spend anything for 
the world and nothing for God, when Ave know better? 
There is no question. Why will we not obey the com- 
mandments of God and try to walk in His ways? 

Again I say, Avhy do we not try to obey the Gospel? 
Why do we not accept Jesus and have peace? Those that 
are trying to get peace through the laAV never will get it. 
These poor Galatians had been rightly taught to have the 
liberty of the Gospel, but hardly had Paul left them until 
they were going back to the Jewish law trying to comfort 
themselves. Do you notice that people who are trying to 
find peace in the law, never find it? They are unhappy, 
trying to find peace in their own hearts instead of in the 



644 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

heart of God; trying to find righteousness in their own 
breasts instead of in Jesus Christ ; trying to find it where 
it cannot be found, instead of finding it where it can be 
found. Why do we not obey the Gospel and accept Jesus? 
AVhy do we not accept the peace He wants to give us? 
Being justified by faith we have peace with God, and that 
is the only way — justified by faith. 

Let us not only ask ourselves the question, Why not 
obey and accept Jesus and His peace; but why not pro- 
claim this saving Gospel to a dying world? i^nd when we 
know the law and its condemnation, if we know the con- 
demnation of the world, why do we not obey the Gospel 
and proclaim it? The great King of kings and Lord of 
lords, when He left the world, left this great command : 
''Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every 
creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved ; 
but he that believeth not shall be damned." For nearly 
two thousand years that word has been hurling from the 
very mouth of God, Go! Go! Go! and Ave have not gone 
3^et. When will we go? When will we go? Listen, my 
friends, W^hen will we go? God is commanding us, and 
we are waiting, waiting, waiting. Think of the thousands 
and millions of professed Christians today that could send 
the Gospel to the ends of the earth in one year, if they 
would only do it, but they will not. When will they go? 
Why will you not obey? Oh, who hath bewitched you? 
Paul cried out: "Oh, foolish Galatians, who hath be- 
witched you that ye should not obey the truth, before whose 
eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified 
among you." So I cry out tonight : Who hath bewitched 
us? 

It is very plain who has done it. It is Satan, himself. 
What has he done? He has tried to put error into our 
hearts; he has tried to make us believe that these things 
are not so essential. He led the Galatians from the Gos- 
pel of understanding doAvn to the slavery of the law, and 
he is trying to lead us back into the slavery of the law, 
instead of obeying the Gospel. 

Not only has he planted error in our hearts, but he 
has also created doubt therein. Oh, the doubt that we 



THIRTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 645 

are finding all the time in our souls. And who is putting 
it there? The very one that has bewitched us — Satan. 
If he can just get us to doubt the promises, then he has 
won the victory. 

What more has he done ? Not only put doubt into our 
hearts, but procrastination as well. That is one of the 
great sins in these days. People know they ought to be 
Christians; they know that they ought to be saved and 
serve God; they know they ought to do something for 
missions, but they are just Avaiting a little while yet, and 
they think it is time yet. Many a man is willing to give 
his heart to God and he expects to do it before he dies, 
but the first thing you know the crape is hanging on the 
door; his bod}^ in the grave and his soul in hell, and he 
has been too late, that is all, too late ! Who has bewitched 
him? Satan has. 

Yesterday morning, as I was about to take the train 
for Fostoria, I saw a beautiful black dog coming down 
the track; a freight train Avas running past him; we saw 
the passenger train coming behind ; Ave knew that the dog 
was in danger; we called for him to get off of the track ; but 
no, there he stood and looked at us; the first thing we 
knew the engine hit him; he rolled under the engine; tried 
to get up and run past the wheel ; the wheel caught him ; 
his head was lying on one side of the wheel, his body on 
the other. He was warned, and Avould not get off the 
track. And I say this evening, who hath bewitched us? 
Thousands of people are coming down the track of life; 
they are going faster than they know; the engine of eter- 
nity is just behind; the cry comes: Oh, prepare to meet 
th}^ God! and they just stand and look; and the first 
thing you knoAv they are in eternity. Too late! May 
God help us that we may know the truth and obey it. 

PRAYER. 

Dear Father in heaven, we thank Thee for the blessings of the hour. 
We pray Thee that Thou wilt lead us into Thy holy law, there to see 
our sins, and may that law become the schoolmaster to bring us to 
Christ Jesus. May we find in Jesus our Savior, the innocent One who 
has atoned for our sins, and paid the price, because He is God, and 



*646 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

paid the penalty by His death. Help us in Christ Jesus to come to 
Thee, for Thou hast said that He is the way, the truth, and the life, and 
no man cometh to the Father but by Him. Therefore we come to Thee 
in His name and pray Thee to remember all our prayers of the past; 
remember all our prayers tonight, and do Thou grant us to receive the 
full liberty of children of God, and trust alone in the righteousness of 
Jesus Christ and His mercy. We pray Thee that none of us may be 
led astray by him who has bewitched men. Help that we may be free 
from error. Take out of our minds all doubt. Remove from before 
us all procrastination. May we go forth and do our duty in the right 
moment and always serve Thee in this life, and be with Thee forever. 
Hear this prayer in Jesus' name, who taught us to pray: 

Our Father who art in heaven; Hallowed be Thy name; Thy 
kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven; Give 
us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us ; And lead us not into temptation ; 
But deliver us from evil; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



FOURTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 

The Path Made Plain. 

Gal. 5 :16-24. 

€HIS I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the 
lusts of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and 
the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to 
the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be 
led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the 
flesh are manifest, which are these : Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, 
lasciviousness ; idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, 
strife, seditions, heresies; envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and 
such like; of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in 
time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom 
of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, 
gentleness, goodness, faith; meekness, temperance: against such there is 
no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the 'flesh with the 
affections and lusts. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved in Christ: 

The great missionary, Louis Harms, tells us of a con- 
verted heathen, who came to a missionary with these 
words : "How does it come, when I first knew you I was a 
heathen; then I had only one black heart. After I heard 
the Gospel and accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior, and 
was baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy 
Ghost, then I received a white heart, and now I have two 
hearts, a black one and a white one, and every time I want 
to do right and serve God the black heart says I shall not; 
and every time I want to serve the devil the white heart 
says I shall not. When I want to do what is right, the 
white heart says, Go on, and then the black heart says, 

647 



648 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

Stop. When I want to worship the only true and living 
God the white heart says that is right, and the black heart 
says it is all wrong. When I want to curse, the black 
heart says go ahead, and the white heart says, Do not do 
it. When I want to go to church, the white heart says Go, 
and the black heart says, I haven't got time. When I 
want to treat my mother well, the white heart says. That 
is right, and the black heart says. It doesn't make any 
difference how you treat the old man and the old woman. 
When I love my fellowmen the white heart says. That is 
right; the black heart says. Hate everybody; and so on. 
Now what is it? How does it come? What is the matter? 
^^Well," said the missionary, "I will tell you. Before you 
heard the Gospel you only had one heart; it was black. 
When you accepted Jesus Christ you did get a white 
heart, and now you have both of them, and you will have 
both of them until you breathe your last breath ; then you 
will only have a white heart left in you with Christ for- 
ever." 

There is a great truth in tliat story about the black 
and the white heart that many people do not understand. 
The natural man has no battle because he has only got 
the black heart. He who has no battle has nothing worth 
fighting for. The true Christian is the one that must say 
as Paul wrote to the Galatians : "Ye cannot do the things 
that ye would." The black heart would; the white heart 
says you dare not; and this battle goes on through life. 
"This I say then. Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not ful- 
fill the lusts of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the 
Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh ; and these are con- 
trary the one to the other ; so that ye cannot do the things 
that ye would." If, therefore, you have no battle at all in 
life, you may make up your mind you have got only a 
black heart; but if you have a battle all through life, the 
one saying, Do this, and the other saying, Do not, then 
you can make up your mind that the Spirit of God is 
working in your heart and that you are on the right way. 
The main thing is to see to it that the white heart gets the 
victorv. 



FOURTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 649 

THE PATH MADE PLAIN. 

In olden times when these beautiful fields around 
here were covered with thick forests Ave are told that the 
Indians and our forefathers would go along certain lines 
and blaze their way. In other words, chip the bark off, 
so that they might find their way back. It is my purpose 
this evening to blaze the way and make it plain. 

I. The path to hell. 
II. The path to heaven. 

I. "Now the w^orks of the flesh are manifest, which 
are these: Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lascivious- 
ness; idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, 
wrath, strife, seditions, heresies; envyings, murders, 
drunkenness, revellings, and such like, of the which I tell 
you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they 
which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of 
God.'' 

There you see the path plainly cut. If a man wants 
to know whether he is going to destruction or not, it isn't 
hard to find out. There are just four things he must no- 
tice carefully. The path to destruction is marked by an 
unbridled lust; by Ghristless religion; by the spirit of 
strife and finally by a dissipated life. 

1. I say it is not a hard thing for a man to know 
whether he is going to destruction or not. There is such 
a thing as an unbridled lust. A man ought to thank God 
for lust; he ought to thank God for his manliness; a 
woman should thank God that she is womanly, but beware 
that you do not unbridle lust and let it have its OAvn way. 
As sure as you do that, you are going on the path to de- 
struction. "Adultery; fornication; uncleanness; lasciv- 
iousness ;'' — there you have a picture of sensuality ; there 
you have a picture of man in his natural state, running 
wild, Avithout a bridle, going down on the steed of death 
to destruction. And I tell you there are many people 
only waiting for an opportunity to sin ; with them it is no 



■650 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

question whether it is right or wrong ; their eyes are con- 
stantly open, watching for an opportunity to ruin another 
family, another home, to bring destruction not only upon 
themselves but upon others. O God, pity the old bache- 
lors in this city just watching to ruin homes; and God 
have mercy on the homes being ruined by men who have 
not got the manhood to have families; who haven't got 
the manhood to bear the burdens of life and to be true 
to humanity. I need not tell this intelligent audience 
how many there are that are going to destruction, and 
they knoAv it. The path is plain. 

2. Along by the side of this unbridled lust goes the 
HJhristless religion. Some people seem to think if you 
have just got a little religion about a thing it is all right, 
forgetting that the path to heir is just as religious as the 
path to heaven. Beware of false religions. The apostle 
Paul wrote tliem down in these words : "Idolatry ; witch- 
craft .... heresies.-' We have a great many people in 
these days who seem to think if you have a building with 
a tower and pulpit, no difference what is taught there, it 
is just as good as any church, and they are the ones that 
have never been instructed, have no ground for their 
faith, no idea of doctrine ; do not know what truth or error 
is, and consequently they are the kind of people that are 
very religious, but have no Christianity, going down to 
destruction. If you remember the first temptation of 
Satan, when he tempted Christ, it was quite a religious 
meeting, and you mistake the whole temptation if you do 
not see that the devil was just as religious as God was. 
It was Satan that proposed the prayer-meeting. Satan 
•said: If you will fall down and worship me, I will give 
3^ou the kingdoms of the world; make a God of me; let's 
just have a little prayer-meeting here. And so you will 
find all through the world, wlienever you find a religion 
without Christ in it, it is idolatry; and wherever there is 
idolatry it is the path blazed toward hell, I do not care 
where you find it. The path is plain. 

3. And not only do we find the path made plain by 
€hristless religion, but by the spirit of strife. The apostle 
described this spirit by these words : "Hatred, variance, 



FOURTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 651 

emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyingSy. 
murders.'^ Oh, what a brood of these satanie births that 
are found in the hearts of men, and when you look around 
you do not need to look very far to find jealousy, envy. 
It is found in the hearts of professed Christians. There 
are people in this world that just simply delight in try- 
ing to hate somebody, and say something terrible about 
some one, jealous of their prosperity, ever ready to push 
some one down in order to lift themselves up, and that 
kind of spirit marks the spirit of one who would murder if 
he had a chance. There are people only watching for an 
opportunity to do something worse than to drive a dagger 
into the heart of man, and that kind of a spirit blazes the 
way toward hell. Just as the old angel that rebelled and 
became a devil never forgot his religion, so he who caused 
Cain to raise the club to kill Abel never forgot he was a 
murderer; he planted murder into the hearts of the people, 
and whenever you find yourself with an unforgiving spirit, 
hating this man and that one, always watching an oppor- 
tunity for taking revenge, trying to hurt a man instead of 
lifting him up, mark you, you are on the path to destruc- 
tion just as sure as the Bible is God's Word. 

4. You usually find this same path is marked also by 
dissipation. "Drunkenness, revellings, and such like, of 
the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time 
past, that they wliich do such things shall not inherit the 
kingdom of God." I want to give you a warning this 
morning. Any man on earth that proclaims against 
hell is a liar and he knows it. There is no use talk- 
ing about these things being only opinions. God's Word 
is just as plain concerning hell as heaven, and that man 
who thinks he can go on in his own way, go on in the spirit 
of unbridled lust, in the spirit of unforgiving strife, and' 
go in drunkenness and carousing and living an ungodly 
life, taking his body, which is the temple of the Holy 
Ghost, and debauching it, that man, I say, if he thinks he 
is going on in that way and go to heaven, will find he is 
mistaken on the great Judgment Day. There are a great 
many people who would not be found lying in the ditch, or 
in prison, or would not be found being hauled home in a 



652 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

cab because they are too drunk to walk, but they are al- 
ways ready to have just a little booze on hands, just a 
little drink, just to go home and think. Now I have got an- 
other glass too much; and there are people in this world 
who are doing this; there are professed Christians who 
seem to think it is all right, just so long as they spend 
their own money, and just so long as they can walk on a 
sidewalk without falling off, and just so long as they do 
not rob anybody. Oh, my friends, there is only one right 
way to live, and that is a sober life ; and the only way to 
live a sober life is to be very careful not to take anything 
that will make you any other way. I remember some 
time ago talking to a professor of one of our institutions 
in Columbus. He said, "In the midst of a storm on the 
ocean I would feel a great deal safer to know that the 
hand that is at the pilot hasn't had one drink of whisky, 
than to know that he had it" ; and I want to say that any 
man is safer, if he quits drinking intoxicants as a beverage. 
And so I would urge upon you all to be very careful not to 
imagine you can go on reeling into heaven. You cannot do 
it. Do not imagine that you can lead a drunken life and 
then at last come out a saint. Do not think anything of 
the kind. The real truth is that you are going to live just 
about as you are going to die, and as you die you are 
going to lie in the grave, and as you lie in the grave you 
will rise on the Eesurrection morning, and as you rise on 
the Eesurrection morning you will spend eternity. This 
idea that some people have that in a moment they will be 
changed from children of the devil to angels of light, is a 
mistake. When men become Christians they become 
Christians by degrees. I am willing to admit the new 
birth is instantaneous; I am willing to admit that it is 
like a flash of lightning, but I will not admit that it comes 
with all its causes like lightning. The great truth of 
God's Word must be sown into the hearts of men, and 
every step you have ever taken in life has been by degrees. 
You did not learn to talk, or to read in a day ; you didn't 
learn to walk in a day; you did not learn your trade in 
a day; you did not get your profession in a day; it took 
Ions: and tedious work. Some one said to me the other 



FOURTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 653 

day, Why, you ought to get rich at the salary you are get- 
ting. These dear people don't know that I spent fifteen years 
of my life getting nothing and spending part of father's 
farm to get an education. They do not know that a man 
has to work a long time to make up what he has lost. The 
real truth is we have got by hard Avork and toil what 
we have. If a man says to me, I don't see hoAv you can 
do your work so easily, he forgets the oil that has been 
burned in the past to do it easily now ; he forgets the work 
you have done in the past to do what you do noAv. And 
just as this is true in natural matters, it is true in relig- 
ion. The man that is going to become a child of God 
AA'hen he dies has got to begin right away. He has got to 
grow in grace. So I come to you with this warning, do 
not imagine you are going to live a child of the dcAdl in 
lust unbridled, with your Christless religion, and the 
spirit of strife and unforgiving hatred toward all men, 
living in your dissipation, and then at last, when lying 
on your death-bed, hurry and call the preacher to hurry 
and offer a prayer. He will offer it, but your soul may go 
to hell while the preacher is praying. Do not forget it. 

II. I wdsh to make the path to heaven just as plain 
as the path to hell. ''But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, 
peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meek- 
ness, temperance ; against such there is no law. And they 
that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affec- 
tions and lusts. I Avould have you notice the way made 
plain by contrast. The way to hell is marked, first of 
all by unhridJed lust; the path to heaven is marked by 
crucified lusts. 

1. Xowhere does God's Word say when a man gets 
to be a Christian then he is just like an angel and cannot 
sin any more; that he has no temptations or trials any 
more. No. Paul knew better. Paul, at the end of his 
great life, cried out : I have fought a good fight ; I have 
finished my course; I have kept the faith! The man that 
expects to go to heaven must take the lust that he has got 
and crucify it, and that means to hurt it; that means to 
nail it to the cross. When Jesus Christ was crucified on 

42 



654 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

Calvary, there was no playing that day; there was shed- 
ding of blood; there was suffering; there was agony; 
there was the pain of hell in Jesus when He cried out, 
"My God! My God! Why hast Thou forsaken Me?'' 
Why did He thus cry? Because He was being crucified 
for the sins of the world; and when you have a tempta- 
tion that seems to be leading you to death and destruc- 
tion, thank God that you have the life in you ; thank God 
that you have the power to be tempted and the manhood 
to be tested, and take the lust and crucify it, crush it, and 
fight against evil, and pray God to give you strength to do 
the right. Lead me, not into temptation, should be your 
prayer. 

2. In contrast with the Christless religion, you 
should have a Christian religion. "And they that are 
Christ's" — are Christ's. That tells it all. You have got 
to be Christ's before you can be a Christian, and when you 
are a Christian remember that you have got a life that you 
did not have before. It is not necessary for a man to say 
on such and such a day and in such and such an hour, in 
such and such a Avay, I was born again. You do not know 
very much about your first birth, do you? I do not re- 
member when I was born, nor do you ; but I know I was, 
and so do you. The Lord Jesus tells us that as the wind 
hloweth and you know not where it came from nor where 
it goes, so it is with the new birth. It is enough for you 
to know the wind is blowing. You do not care where it 
comes from nor where it is going, just so long as you have 
the breezes. So it is with the new birth. We are told in 
God's Word: Except a man be born of water and the 
Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God. This Holy 
Spirit brings into our hearts the seed of the new birth in 
many ways. He does it in Holy Baptism for the little 
child; through the preaching of the Word; through medi- 
tation on a single word of God. It may be you are out on 
the street just meditating on the words. Love of God, un- 
til he plants into your heart the seed of the new birth ; but 
I do know when I love Christ; I do knoAV when I love 
God's Word; I do know when I pray; I do know when I 
love the things that are good and holv and hate the things 



FOURTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 655 

that are bad; and if I do, I am born again, and I do not 
care bow it happens; and that is the thing for you to 
know, that you love Christ; that you love the religion of 
Jesus Christ ; that His Word is precious to your soul ; that 
you enjoy a good Gospel sermon and love to sing songs of 
praise to His holy name ; and what do you care how it hap- 
pened? See to it that jou are a child of God and love 
things that are good and holy; walk in the footprints of 
your Master and have a Cliristian religion, and when you 
have that you want Christ in that religion. When you 
find yourself among a band of people that do not ask 
whether you believe in Christ or not, ask yourself the 
question. May I do this? Remember the devil is relig- 
ious, and religion without Christ is purely devilish. Re- 
member the way to hell is blazed with religion with no 
Christ in it; the way to heaven is Christ all the time. 
^^Jesus, lover of my soul; let me to Thy bosom fly," is the 
very spirit of the way to heaven. It is all Christ on the 
way to heaven. 

3. And that means Christian life. A man cannot be 
a Christian by leading the life of a child of the devil; he 
cannot walk on the way leading in the opposite direction, 
and expect to enter heaven's gate ; he cannot walk on two 
ways leading in opposite directions at the same time. And 
so you find the life of a true Christian is described in 
these words: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love.'' In- 
stead of hating everybody you love your enemies. Ask 
yourself the question. Do I love my fellowmen? Have I 
a love for the lowly and fallen? Have I a love for even 
those that hate me? You say you cannot love your ene- 
mies? The Christian knows better. He can. It is the 
way' to heaven. It is the Spirit of Jesus. If I love my 
Savior and stay right close to the cross, can I hear him 
praying for those that drove the nails through His hands 
and feet. Father, forgiA-e them, for they know not what 
they do, and refuse to forgive my enemies? I can easily 
forgive you for you have never put a nail through my 
hands, and you never will. I can easily forgive you for 
you never drove a spear into my breast, and I do not think 
you ever will. I can easily forgive you, for you never put 



656 THE ETEKNAL EPISTLE. 

the crown of thorns on my head, and I do not think you 
will ever do it. If I have the Spirit of Christ I can for- 
give any man on earth. That is the way to heaven. And 
Oh, what a glorious thing it is to love and be loved, and 
true love is from Him who is love. The best definition 
that was ever given of God lies in these three words : God 
is love. 

So from this love there flows out joy, happiness, love. 
The Christian — the man that walks along in this world 
with a long face never leads many people to Christ ; never 
leads many people to heaven. Many young people are 
kept out of the Christian Church because of the church 
members and preachers who seem to make the Christian 
life look miserable to them. The thing for a man of God 
to do is to be the happiest man in the community. If 
there is a happier man in this city than I am, I would like 
to find him. Just as soon as I can find a profession in which 
I can be happier than the ministry, I will leave it, but I 
will never find it. The happiest hours of my life are right 
here, standing behind the Word of God, showing souls 
the way to heaven and warning them against the way that 
leads to destruction. That is happiness and joy. And 
the best thing that I can wish for you in this world is 
first of all that you be a saved man or a saved woman, 
and that there might be born to you a son who might 
preach the Gospel of Christ. Wish it to me, and I will 
thank God for the gift. 

Peace! Oh, what a blessed thing it is to have peace. 
The man that goes down the path of destruction has no 
peace; the man that permits his lust to go unbridled is 
not happy; the man that has a Christless religion has no 
hope; the man that is constantly fighting with his neigh- 
bors has no peace nor happiness ; the man that is living a 
dissipated life feels in his own body and soul the very 
fire and the flame of the hell he is trying to deny. Peace 
comes from faith in elesus Christ. Trust in the Savior 
and not in the human heart, and along the path of eternal 
life you will find peace. And the more you find out 
what the human heart is, and the more you discover the 
patience of God with you, the more patience you will have 



FOURTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRESTITY. 657 

with humanity. The older I grow, the more I study hu- 
man nature, and the more I see of false humanity, the 
more patience I have got. There was a time when I felt 
that every sinner ought to be behind the walls; that 
every fallen man ought to be punished; but to-day my 
heart goes out for the poor fallen man. If there is any 
life I would rather spend than this one behind the pulpit 
and in the presence of this intelligent people, it would be 
to go to the lowest slums of the city, and there delve in 
the filth to lift up humanity. There is no grander and 
nobler life in the Avorld than the spirit of long-suffering. 
You will find long-suffering along the path to eternal life. 

Gentleness. Oh, how good it is just to offer a kind 
word to some one. You remember a few days ago three 
young men stood before this altar and united with this 
church. They will not be ashamed of it if I tell it to- 
night, that a year ago we found those people all in one 
little room, strangers in a strange land. Oh, they needed 
our sympathy and help then, and we gave it to them. 
Nothing lost. I baptized the twelfth son of that family 
last Aveek; and that family, poor two years ago, has a 
beautiful home right off of Fourth Street in the city of 
Mansfield ; and these three boys came into the church and 
could not help it, because gentleness is not forgotten. 
To take an enemy and pound him black and blue may 
be a satisfaction to the revengeful heart, but what good 
does it do? Whom does it help? What have I done? — 
made a worse enemy of the one who was an enemy. But 
take the enemy, the fallen, the poor, and speak a kind 
word, and lift them up, show them the right way and 
they will never forget it, and will want to go with you 
to heaven. 

Kindness. God knows we are all mean enough, and 
there is enough badness in all of us, but it does do us 
good to see the goodness of a man that has the badness 
in him; and what Ave ought to try to cultivate more and 
more is the good that is in us, and my comfort in hu- 
manity is this, I never found a man so low and so fallen 
that I could not find some good little spot somewhere to 
begin with to lift him up. I know that man is naturally 
42 



658 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

a child of wrath, and I know that in a spiritual sense 
there is nothing good in an^^ of us, no, not one; but the 
old spark of the Divine law planted into the heart of 
Adam has never been wholly effaced, and if I can find 
that spark I will kindle a fire with the goodness and 
power of the Holy Spirit. 

How do we get all these good things? By having 
faith — meekness. Yes, faith. Some men think it is a 
hard thing to believe in Christ, a hard thing to believe 
in the Bible. I want to tell you, my friends, it is a ter- 
ribly hard thing not to believe in the Bible, and it is a 
terribly hard thing not to believe in Christ. You will 
find that the enemies of the church will find fault with 
the preacher, and with the church members, and with 
this and that, but where is the enemy of the church that 
ever dared to find fault with Jesus of Nazareth? And 
so I say that the thing to do is to have faith in Jesus 
Christ, and cultivate this meekness, and walk in His foot- 
prints. 

4. One mark of the path to heaven we have yet, and 
that is temperance. On the side of destruction is that 
spirit, as I mentioned a while ago, of dissipation, but on 
the way to heaven is temperance. Not temperance in 
the narrow fanatical sense so many people look upon it. 
So many people think that if they do not touch strong 
drink they are temperate, but they will sit down and eat 
like swine. They think that if they neither touch nor 
handle strong drink they are absolutely temperate, but 
they will work Sundays and week days; they are not 
temperate. The path to heaven is marked by temperance, 
and that means the abuse of nothing, and the right use 
of everything; and that is the only sensible way of hand- 
ling the subject of temperance with regard to strong 
drink, or anything else. The man that looks upon a 
barrel of beer or a keg of whisky as having the devil in 
it, has absolutely no conception of the truth nor religion. 
You cannot put the devil into a keg; you cannot put the 
devil out of man into drink. If all the people in the 
world were true Christians, you might roll the streets 
full of whisky and it would never do any harm. There 



FOURTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 659 

is not a thing in this world that is not good, outside of 
man and the devil, but because man is bad naturally, 
and weak, he will go to the worst if he does not stand 
for the best. Consequently it becomes our duty as a 
people to guard and protect the home, to guard and pro- 
tect the church; and the time is coming in a very few 
weeks when every citizen in this city will be called upon 
to arise above liis low and filthy politics and face the 
question. What is my duty to my son? What is my duty 
to my family, to my friends, and to my God? I preach 
no politics; I preach the Word of God; but I do say 
when you come to the test at the next election, do not 
forget the way to heaven, and do not forget the way to 
hell, and stand up for that which you believe in your 
own heart is for the welfare of humanity and for the 
glory of God. 

Is the way plain? Then let me ask you a few ques- 
tions in conclusion : Have you been going the right way? 
Which way have you been going? What has been your 
direction up to this hour? Now I realize the responsi- 
bility of the hour. There never has been an audience of 
this size gathered together as they are here from Sunday 
to Sunday, in which there isn't some one who is hearing 
the last sermon he will ever hear. Which way are you 
going tonight? I have blazed the way. You ought to 
know. Are you trusting in your own righteousness? Are 
you living a life of lust and shame? Are you living a 
dissipated life? Are you trusting in false religions? Have 
you the spirit of strife and envy? Stop right short. You 
are going to destruction. On the other hand, have you 
faith in Jesus Christ? Do you love purity, goodness, 
meekness, temperance ? Are you putting your whole trust 
in the blood of Christ on Calvary's hill as your atone- 
ment? Are 3^ou living wholly and solely for God's glory 
and for the welfare of humanity? Are you baptized in 
the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, and is it 
your purpose to be faithful to Him until death? If so, 
you are on the path that leads to glory. 

There is only one way, and oh, what a glorious thing 
it is to preach this Gospel of Christ. If there were 



660 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

twenty-five ways to heaven you might lose yourself, but 
there is only one way. Christ said: I am the Way, and 
the Truth, and the Life, and no man cometh to the Father 
but by Me. Do you believe that? Have you accepted 
that way? Have you given the same effort to prepare 
for heaven that you have for your present life, for your 
business or trade? The opportunity is again given to 
you next Friday evening. I should be glad to see every 
man, every woman, in this audience who has never taken 
a thorough course of instruction in God's Word, in that 
upper room, and I am sure that if you do come twice, 
you would not miss the rest of the time unless sickness 
keeps you at home. Will you trj it? And when you have 
received that instruction; when you have heard the last 
word that I have to say to you, all that I ask of you to 
do is to use your good judgment, the means that God gave 
you to decide what you know in your own heart is right, 
and I will assure you that you will be on the way that 
leads to heaven. 

Brethren, I am not talking with a month's experience, 
but with eighteen years of the ministry behind me, and 
many souls led to the Master. I am ready to say that I 
have never had a single man listen to me for fourteen 
evenings but that he came out on the side of God. Not 
one; Will you give the test? Are you interested enough 
to try? If there is a man in this audience that can teach 
me for my good, I will come and see him ; I will thank him 
for it, and I will pay him for it; and here you have this 
work offered here for nothing, and it will mean more on 
the Judgment day than all the banks and all the insurance 
companies in the world. For what will it profit a man 
if he shall gain the Avorld and lose his own soul? Will 
you do it? Which way? May God help you tonight to 
decide just exactly which way. He that believeth and is 
baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall 
be damned. These are the words of Jesus, who cannot 
lie. Amen. 

PRAYER: 

(Congregation uniting with pastor) O heavenly Father, we come 
before Thee in this evening hour, thanking Thee that the house of God 



FOURTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 661 

is a house of prayer. We pray Thee this evening that Thou wilt help 
each one of us to profit by the words which we have heard this day. Do 
Thou help us to hate the evil and seek the right. Help us to leave the 
path that leads to eternal destruction and to walk on the only way that 
leads to heaven. Give us a living faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Help 
us to live for the welfare of humanity and for the glory of God. We 
ask this all in Jesus' name, who taught us to pray : 

Our Father who art in heaven; Hallowed be Thy name; Thy 
kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven; Give 
us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us ; And lead us not into temptation ; 
But deliver us from evil; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



FIFTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 

Practical Principles. 

Gal. 5:25-6:10. 

IF we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not 
be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one 
another. 

Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, 
restore such an one in the spirit of meekness ; considering thyself, lest 
thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the 
law of Christ. For if a man think himself to be something, when he 
is nothing, he deceiveth himself. But let every man prove his own 
work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in 
another. For every man shall bear his own burden. Let him that is 
taught in the Word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good 
things. Be not deceived : God is not mocked : for whatsoever a man 
soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall 
of the flesh reap corruption ; but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of 
the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well-doing, 
for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. As we have therefore 
opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are 
of the household of faith. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved in Christ : 

This text is a continuation of the text of last Sunday, 
which shows us clearly not only the way to heaven, but 
the practial use that we are to make of this way. We 
heard last Sunday the way made plain, both to hell and 
to heaven, but let us not suppose for a moment that pure 
religion consists simply in profession. Kemember that a 
Christian life means more than simply to go to church 
and sit down and sing hymns and pray ; it means in daily 
life to live as God would have us live, in order that those 

662 



FIFTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 663 

who are around us may be led on the right way to heaven. 
There are, therefore, certain 

PRACTICAL PRINCIPLES 

found in the lesson of this evening, wliich the Holy Spirit, 
we pray, may help us thoroughly to understand, and one 
of the very first is this : 

I. Let us imlk in the right path ourselves. "If we 
live in the Spirit, then let us also walk in the Spirit. 
Let us not be desirous of vainglory, provoking one an- 
other, envying one another." "For if a man think him- 
self to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth 
himself. But let every man prove his own work, and then 
shall we have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in an- 
other." 

In these words we plainly learn that the principle 
of life should be that we walk not in the path of our own 
selection, but rather in the path that is selected by the 
Lord our God, through the Holy Spirit. A young man 
who had just started to college came home and met a dear 
relative of his and said, "Now I am going to be a profes- 
sional man." Then said his relative, "Then what?" "Then 
I am going to become a man of fame, in law and in gov- 
ernment." "Then what?" "After I have made my repu- 
tation, I am going to gather up wealth." "Then what?" 
^•Then I am going to build a large mansion and live like 
a king." "Then what?" "Then I shall try to go and 
treat my children the same way, and give them each a 
home." "Then what?" "Well, then I shall spend my 
last days trying to take care of what I have gathered up, 
and live in honor and fame." "Then what?" "Then, I 
suppose, like all others, I shall die." "And then what?" 
And the young man began to think as he never thought 
before, and when he left that uncle of his, constantly he 
heard the question, "And then what?" until he made up 
his mind the thing to do is first of all to be prepared 
to meet his God, and follow in God's path of His own 
selection. 

We are warned here against the sin of pride and jeal- 



664 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

ousy and envy, against the spirit of thinking ourselves 
better than other people are, and let us not for one mo- 
ment think that this spirit is seldom found. There isn't 
a village in which there are not a few people who think 
themselves above the others; there is not a congregation 
in which there isn't some one or more who think they are 
a little above the rest; there is hardly a community to be 
found on earth where this spirit of pride and envy and 
jealousy does not exist. Now then, the practical lesson 
for us to learn in true Christianity is this, that we do 
not select our own path, but walk in the path of the Holy 
Spirit. "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the 
Spirit.'' Let us not imagine that we are so far better 
than other people; let us not think others are so far be- 
low us, but remember we are only doing that to exalt 
ourselves. "For every one that exalteth himself shall be 
abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." 
What is the way of the Spirit? The Word of God itself 
is the way of the Spirit, and when we hear this Word of 
God we are in the path that He leads us. When we 
obey the truth that we hear, and hear it for the purpose 
of learning that we might live it, then we are walking in 
God's holy path. When we obey His commandments and 
try to hold fast to His promises and grow in grace day 
by day that we might ourselves live nearer to Him and 
thus bring others with us, then we are walking in the 
path of the Holy Spirit. 

In other words, we must make diligent use of the 
means of grace. God comes to us, as we have heard so 
often, in the Word and the Holy Sacraments, and when 
that Word is preached to us we should hear it; when 
that W^ord is taught in the class we should be there ; Avhen 
we have the opportunity to be baptized, we ought to be 
baptized, if we have not been ; and when the Lord's Sup- 
per is celebrated we should be found at the table and 
there eat of the body and drink of the blood of Christ, 
and thank God for the means of grace. And then, on 
hearing His Word, we should always ask, What improve- 
ment can I make in my life? How walk in the center of 
the path that God has selected? This is the practical les- 



FIFTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 665 

son that we should all obey, to Avalk in the path that God 
has selected ourselves. 

II. Another practical lesson in this epistle is this : 
Let us lead others in the right path. ^'Brethren, if a man 
be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore 
such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thy- 
self, least thou also be tempted." 1 think the text 
we lieard last Sunday morning and the heart searching, 
must have made each one of us feel, I am the chief of sin- 
ners. And if it did, with that heart searching w^e had, it 
will not be long until we find that it is a very common 
thing for a man to be overtaken in a fault. Where is the 
man that has not been overtaken in a fault? And if we 
are going to walk on the right path, what are we going 
to do? Shove him off of the right path; push him 
down; boast in fact that this man has fallen? No. 
Let us in tlie si)irit of meekness go to such an one 
and tell him where his fault is. And while we are going, 
remember that the next time it will be his opportunity 
to come to me and tell me w^here my fault is. I will this 
time in all kindness try to lift him back on the path from 
Avhich he has departed, and remember that Avhile I am 
going after him, I want to do that with the same spirit I 
would like to have him come and lead me back when I 
go a step out of the Avay. Oh, the spirit of meekness and 
love which is found in Jesus Christ. If that spirit were 
used to win souls for heaven, how many would be on that 
path! Our first duty, therefore, should always be to lead 
those back again asIio have left the path of right. 

Can you not in looking around you think of some one 
who one time was bus}^ in tlie kingdom of God; some one 
who was busy in the Church of God? But where is he 
today? He has stepped out of the path; wandered away; 
fallen by the Avayside. Have you ever gone to him with 
the spirit of meekness and love, and in all privacy tried 
to bring him back, that no one Avould know it? Have 
you ever treated him as a mother Avould take her sick 
child and press it to her bosom and give it the kiss of 
love? The practical path of love is always to be kind to 
the fallen: to always be kind to those who have stepped 



666 THE ETEENAL EPISTLE. 

out of the way, and bring them back. This does not mean 
that we should look upon sin lightly; it does not mean 
that we should not thunder a warning into the hearts of 
those that seemingly have hard hearing; it does not mean 
that the laws of Sinai should not thunder in their ears; 
but it does mean, when the laT^' has done its work, to 
come with the spirit of meekness and bring back those 
that have left the right path. 

And if it is our duty on the right path of life to 
bring those back who have fallen by the wayside, surely 
it is our duty to bring those into this path that have 
never been there. If it is wrong to let one fall off of the 
right path, it is surely wrong to let those off that have 
never been on the right path. The very same spirit, there- 
fore, urges us to hold those who are on the right path and 
keep them in the right, is the same spirit that says : Go 
out and find the fallen, and find the lost, and bring them 
to their Savior and to salvation. ^'If a man be overtaken 
in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in 
the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, least thou 
also be tempted.'' 

III. A third practical principle in this text is this: 
Let us begin hurden-hearing. ''Bear ye one another's 
burdens." ''For every man shall bear his own burden/' 
Those two verses seem to be direct contradictions. In the 
second verse we are commanded to bear one another's 
burdens, and in the fifth verse commanded to bear our 
own. How is it possible? We are to bear burdens that 
others cannot bear; and we are to bear burdens that 
others should not bear. 

There are burdens that others cannot bear. The 
world is full of aged people who can toil no longer 
to earn their bread. The world is full of hospitals and 
sick people who cannot earn their daily bread. The 
world is full of cripples and little infants and the help- 
less all around us. There is a class of people who abso- 
lutely cannot bear their burdens. What is our duty? 
With the spirit of Christ, if we are practical Christians, 
we will reach out and help to bear the burdens of others. 
If one of our own number is sick and cannot earn his 



FIFTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 667 

bread, it is a Christian duty, and love to our fellowmen 
demands it, that we help to support that man. If the 
Christian Church had always done its duty, you would 
not find today so many poor people paying all their 
money to worthless lodges. If all the Christian people 
would simply keep in mind their love to their fellowmen, 
and burden-bearing duty, then when one is sick we are 
to run to him and help him, not because Ave had vowed 
to do so; not because we had promised to help this one 
and let the other go, in which there is no love at all. 
No. Then we would help a man because he is a man, 
because he needs help; and we would not go to a man 
and say. If you pay your dues you will get help, and if 
not, you cannot. We w^ould go to the poor man and say. 
Because you cannot pay your dues, because you haven't 
anything to pay your dues, Ave will help you to 
bear your burden. That is the Christian love. That is 
the practical principle that lies in this beautiful epistle 
tonight. Yes, let us bear one another's burdens. 

There are burdens that others should not bear. We 
have a great many people in the present day who seem to 
think that the world OAves them a liAdng. They walk 
around in this Avorld as if to say, No difference w^hether 
I work or not, I must have my bread and clothing; if ] 
cannot get them honestly I Avill steal; the Avorld owes 
me a living. The AAorld does not owe any man a living. 
There is only one promise for a living, and that is by the 
sweating of the face. ''In the sweat of thy face shalt 
thou eat bread." If the world oaa^cs one man a living 
without work, it OAves it to CA^^ery man, and if every man 
were to quit AA^ork today, it would not take one year 
until the world Avould be starving. The very principle 
of living depends upon not only labor, but hard labor. 
Consequently^ there are burdens that others should not 
bear. It is not your duty nor mA^ duty to bear the burden 
of a lazy, strong man. The first thing that ought to be 
required, therefore, of every citizen, whether man or 
woman, is that he or she be willing to and shall labor 
to earn their daily bread. If there is a heavy weight to 
carrv, and two of us were ordered to carry it, if I fail to 



668 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

carry my part I am shifting the burden on the other 
man, but if I bear my part I am bearing his burden, 
because it is the very burden that he would have to carry 
if I did not. So you see, after all, there is no contradic- 
tion between these two verses. If you bear your own 
burden you are bearing a burden that somebody else will 
have to bear if you do not. Consequently by bearing 
your own burden, you are bearing the burden of your 
fellowman. 

And why is it that there are so many people bur- 
dened today? Because there are so many that are not 
bearing any burden. One man in the family has to earn 
the bread for all that eat at the table; he has to buy the 
clothing for all that wear them. There are too mam^ 
people in the present day that are earning nothing, like 
parasites, hanging on to those who are willing to toil, 
and the consequence is that those that are burdened are 
burdened too much and others are not bearing any bur- 
den whatever. Let us learn the practical lesson this very 
evening that the true Christian must always try to bear 
his burden. 

IV. The fourth practical lesson is this: Let us 
fully appreciate the teachers of God's Wo7^d. "Let him 
that is taught in the Word communicate unto him that 
teacheth in all good things.'' We understand in the be- 
ginning of the ministry the apostles and their successors 
were not offered large salaries. They went and preached 
the Word of God wherever it was to be preached, and 
depended wholly and solely upon the good hearts and 
good will of the people who heard the Word, to support 
them. And now and then we hear men say in the pres- 
ent day that the old preachers had it so much harder 
than now. They tell us of men that used to preach three 
or four places and only got two hundred dollars a year. 
I know that is true. I know some men who preached 
two or three places for two hundred dollars a year, 25 
or 30 years ago, who laid up |150.00 out of those |200 ; 
and I know furthermore there are men in these days 
getting nearly two thousand dollars that cannot lay up 
a cent. Let us not imagine that salary is always to be 



FIFTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITI. 669 

judged entirely by the amount of dollars. What does it 
cost a man? That is the question. Do you know that 
your own pastor does not lay up as much money as the 
girl that works for him? Do jou realize that? One 
thing, however, has ahvays been God's rule, and it is to- 
day yet, and that is that he who teaches the Word of 
God is to live of that Word. The apostle tells us in 
another place that we should not muzzle the ox that 
treads out the corn, and gives proof of the fact that he 
that teaches the Gospel should live of the Gospel. The 
ox that treads out the corn is never muzzled. Young 
people may not understand this. In olden times they 
had no threshing machines as they have today. They 
would throw the grain down on the floor, take the oxen 
and lead them in a circle, tramping out the grain; but 
they were never so mean as to make an ox walk in that 
ring all day, and tie his mouth shut and never let him 
eat a bite. When he treads out the corn he has a right 
to eat. So the apostle saj^s every man is worthy of his 
hire; he says that the laborer should receive a living, 
and no difference what his calling, should have his daily 
bread. There is a practical lesson in that for every con- 
gregation, and that is when you have any man, no dif- 
ference who he is, wlio is giving you the Word of life, it 
becomes your duty to see to it he is not in want, that 
he may constantly give his whole attention to the salva- 
tion of souls, and set an example worthy of following, 
giving and giving liberally, and showing the right spirit 
to those that follow. What right have I to ask you to 
be liberal and to be good and kind to the poor, if I am 
never able to be good and kind to them? The very first 
duty a man of God has is to show an example to people 
in every line, and I am always asking God that he may 
ever give me the right spirit to show you your duty to 
your fellowmen. The Apostle Paul lays down those prin- 
ciples. "Let him that is taught in the law communicate 
unto him that teacheth in all good things." You owe it 
to your pastor — I am not speaking of myself — no dif- 
ference who he is, that brings you the Word of Life — 



670 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

you owe him his living, just the same as you owe a man 
his money when he rolls stone or hauls lumber for you, 
when his day's work is done. 

And this is not only true in regard to pastors; it is 
true in regard to laymen. I am satisfied you children 
never can do too much for your parents Avho taught you 
the Word of God. If you have parents who never teach 
you the Word of God at home, they are not doing their 
duty. Train up a child in the w^ay he shall go, and when 
he is old he will not depart from it. 

We owe a great debt to our Sunday school teachers 
who stand before us week after week and bring us the 
bread of life, and try to show us the better way to live, 
and how to die, and where to spend eternity. You never 
can get done doing good and saying good things about 
them and helping them along in this life. Are we always 
as kind as we ought to be to those who have instructed 
us in the W^ord of God? 

How many people are not remembering their former 
pastors as they ought? I would love to see every man in 
this church alwaj^s speak highly of those that have gone 
before. When you stop to think that out of all the pas- 
tors that have preached in this First Lutheran church, 
only two are living, do you realize what they have done 
for you? Do you realize what the first great missionary 
who carried the Word of God to Eichland county, Ohio 
— Brother Euth — did for ^'^ou? Are you remembering 
the good that Dr. Fiery did here? Are you remember- 
ing the good that Dr. Wiles did here? When speaking 
of him are you only finding fault, or are you remember- 
ing how many, many souls he has led to heaven; and 
how good and kind he was to you in times of need? And 
when your present pastor's work is done, will you re- 
member he tried hard to lead you heavenward? Will you 
try to remember what he did for your children? Will 
you remember the good your superintendent is trying 
to do for you and your children? Will you remember 
your teachers, who meet weekly on Tuesday evenings, 
while you are spending your time in other places, pre- 



FIFTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 671 

paring to bring the bread of life to 3^ou? These are prac- 
tical principles that lie in this great lesson tonight. 

V. Another : Let us encpect to reap exactly what toe 
soiv. ^'Be no deceived: God is not mocked; for whatso- 
ever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that 
soAveth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but 
he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life 
everlasting. And let us not be weary in Avell doing; for 
in due season we shall reap if we faint not." What a 
beautiful text for a sermon I I wish I had an hour in- 
stead of a few minutes for these few verses. "Be not 
deceived; God is not mocked.'' 

How many people there are who seem to think it is 
so nice to be funny, as we sometimes say, and in order 
til at people may laugh at what we say, we will make fun 
of religion and things religious. Have you ever iioticed 
that whenever Satan wants to make things real funny he 
tries to say something that will approach the sacred? 
Things never are so laughable as when the}^ touch upon 
the Word of God, or the minister, or God Himself. Any 
story without the sacred in it is not ridiculous, but the 
moment you can associate the thing ungodly with things 
good and holy, then Satan makes us all think it is very 
funny and laughable. Some time ago I read a story of 
a weaver in Europe who one Saturday afternoon had 
almost completed the piece of cloth he was making. He 
said to his wife, "In one hour from now I will have 
finished this cloth.'' His wife was a good Christian 
woman, and she said, "If it is the Lord's will." "Oh," 
said the weaver, "I am going to finish it whether it is 
the Lord's will or not," and he gave the shuttle a swing; 
it went too far; he failed to catch it, and, reaching after 
it in his anger, he caught his foot and broke it, and lay 
there for six weeks; he did not finish the garment. "Be 
not deceived; God is not mocked." 

Again, I read of a man in one of our European 
cities noted for sitting around in hotels, making fun of 
things good and holy. A member of the Christian church, 
his pastor, after having served for twenty years in that 
church, had decided at last to go to another city to 



672 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

preach. One evening this man said to his wife, "Next 
Sunday you need not bring me an ordinary handkerchief ; 
3^ou can bring me a sheet; I am going to cry when our 
pastor leaves." He thought it was funny to bring the 
sheet. His wife was a good Christian woman, and she 
said : "It is a very solemn matter to me that my pastor 
is going away after having served us for twenty years; 
I would advise you not to mock, but if you want the 
sheet, I will get it." He said, "Get it; I want it." And 
she got it for him. Then on Wednesday he took sick; 
Thursday evening he died; Friday he was wrapped in 
the same sheet he wanted to cry in on Sunday, and the 
pastor while preaching the funeral sermon, wept over the 
dead man that died mocking God. "Be not deceived; 
God is not mocked." 

At a banquet a few years ago in New York City, one 
man suggested the idea of celebrating the Lord's Supper 
in a jocular manner, and took up the wine and said, 
"Here I am drinking the Lord's blood." He fell back 
dead ; and there was no question in the minds of his skep- 
tical friends that God would not be mocked. 

We know this with regard to earthly matters. There 
isn't one of us tonight that does not know when we sow 
flower seed we expect flowers; when we sow wheat we 
expect wheat ; when we plant corn we expect corn ; when 
we sow grass we expect grass ; and yet there are so many 
people in the present day that seem to think they can 
just sow a life of sin to the flesh, and reap heaven. It 
cannot be done. Whatsoever a man soweth, that will he 
reap — the same kind, and a larger quantity. 

Yes, the same kind. "For he that soweth to the 
flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption." We heard in 
last Sunday's lesson what it means to sow to the flesh. 
A man that sows his unbridled lust is bound to reap 
hell ; a man that sows in anger and sows to the flesh can 
never reap things that are spiritual. The question to- 
night is, What are we sowing? What are we sowing? 
There is a wonderful difference between the flesh and 
the Spirit. When we have a fleshly desire, oh, how we 
desire that! And the more we think over it, the more 



FIFTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 673 

we desire it, and then, when that desire is fulfilled we 
are disgusted with ourselves — thoroughly disgusted. Not 
so with spiritual matters. Spiritual matters are the 
things we don't want; we are trying to keep away from 
them just as long as we can, and then we get them by 
degrees, by the gift of the Holy Spirit, and when we find 
them, the joy grows greater and greater. Just the oppo- 
site. Lust begins with joy and the desire to be gratified, 
and becomes thoroughly disgusted with itself, goes to de- 
struction and hell; but the spiritual desire begins with, 
"I don't want to;" and then, "I will;" and then, ^'I have 
joy," and "Oh, heaven is my home!" Just the opposite. 
Whatsoever a man soweth that will he reap. If you sow 
to the flesh you will reap corruption; if you sow to the 
Spirit you Avill reap everlasting life. 

Not only will you reap what you sow, but I would 
call your attention to the fact that you will reap more 
than you sow. You never find a farmer so ignorant as 
to sow a bushel and a half of wheat to the acre with the 
expectation of reaping only a bushel and a half the next 
year. No. When he sows a bushel and a half he is dis- 
satisfied if he does not get twenty to thirty bushels. 
When a man buys his seed corn he does not buy it with 
the purpose of raising just as much as he planted, but 
buys a little seed that he may raise a lot of it. We all 
understand that solving means a larger harvest. When 
a man sows to corruption, what a harvest that will be! 
W^hen a man sows to sin. Oh, what a harvest that will 
be ! When we stop to think that the sowing time is much 
shorter than the reaping time; when we stop to think 
that the sowing of one week will bring a harvest that will 
feed us a year ; Oh, what a harvest that will be when men 
have sown twenty years, thirty years, fifty years, seventy- 
five years, all to corruption! What a great harvest that 
will be of the flesh on that great Judgment day. We are 
not only sowing but we are sowing for a greater harvest, 
and we T\all get exactly what we are sowing. And so I 
would ask you tonight again. What are you sowing? 

And let us remember that the harvest is surely com- 
ing. "And let us not be weary in well doing; for in due 

43 



674 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

season we shall reap if we faint not.'' John Arndt says : 
"It would be a foolish farmer who would sow and imme- 
diately expect a harvest. Thus many a one may say, I 
have prayed so long and so often and do not see any 
answer to my prayers. Thou fool! canst thou not wait 
until the harvest is ripe?" 

VI. My last thought I Avould leave you this evening- 
is this: Let us make use of every opportunity to do good. 
"As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto 
all men, especially unto them who are of the household of 
faith." 

Let us do good unto all men. We are to love human- 
ity ; we are to love the black and the white-; we are to love 
our neighbors and those that live at the antipodes; we 
are to love all human beings no difference where they are 
found. Oh, how little true Christianity there is in the 
world today. How many people there are that would 
never help any one unless he belongs to his little circle 
or clique, or church. We never will live as God wants 
us to live, until we are ready to say, Here is a human 
being that needs help, and God help me to bring that 
help. And let us not simply help when there is great 
need. We never will be thoroughly happy until we have 
our eyes constantly open to watch for opportunities to do 
some kind act somewhere, every moment. Some people 
seem to be perfectly satisfied if they can go to bed at 
night thinking, This morning at 9 o'clock I did some 
kind act. What did you do at two o'clock? At ^y^*^ 
Why should a man so limit his life that he is only look- 
ing for one moment a day to do some kind act? Why 
should we let a day pass by and do notliing? I maintain 
there is not a day of a man's life that he cannot do some- 
thing to make somebody happy; and I maintain that 
there isn't an hour in a man's life that he cannot do and 
say something to do some good somewhere. I think our 
first desire should be constantly to watch for an oppor- 
tunity to make tlie world better by our being in it. 

Another practical observation right in harmony with 
this statement is this: W^e should be especially careful 
to help those of our own members, those of our own faith, 



FIFTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 675 

those of our own church. "Especially unto them who are 
of the household of faith." I think the Apostle Paul had 
here in mind first of all the true Christians. Help them. 
If that was true in PauPs day it is just as true today. 
We should give special help to members of our own 
church. I wonder whether we keep that in mind as much 
as we should? If we have carpenter work to do, why 
don't we give that work to our carpenters? When we 
want to spread the truth as we believe we should, we 
expect our carpenters to help. When we want to do some 
good work in the church, we expect our farmers to help; 
we expect our retail men to help, no difference what 
their business may be. Why should we not, as Christian 
people, patronize those very ones whom we expect to help 
and whom we expect to help us? I fear we are overlook- 
ing that Christian principle too much. We some times 
pass right by our own people and go to those who are not 
one with us as far as faith is concerned; we never expect 
their aid in a financial way, and yet at the same time we 
overlook our own people who are expected to help us. 
One of the very first principles of Christianity is this: 
See to your own home; see to your own people; but do 
not stop there; go on out and do good as you have oppor- 
tunity, to all mankind. 

May the Lord bless these words tonight and help us 
all to put into practice the things we hear. If there is 
any one thing I would wish for it is this, 'that we might 
not come to these Sunday evening services simply as a 
matter of custom, simply as a place to go, and sit down 
and listen and talk, and go home again. Let us by all 
means make up our minds that we want to hear God's 
Word to get bread for our souls; something that we may 
live by tomorrow and all the rest of our lives. And until 
you have your mind fully made up : I want to learn 
the truth that I may live it, it seems to me it is a waste 
of time for you to hear the truth. The very object in hear- 
ing it ought to be that you may take it home to your soul 
and live it before the whole world. May God bless these 
practical principles to our eternal good is my prayer. 
Amen. 



SIXTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 

Paul's Great Prayer. 

Eph. 3:13-21. 

*WM\ HEREFORE I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for 
mjSI you, which is your glory. For this cause I bow my knees 
unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole 
family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, accord- 
ing to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His 
Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; 
that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to compre- 
hend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and 
height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that 
ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Now unto Him that is 
able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, accord- 
ing to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the church 
by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved in Christ: 

This epistle has been called 'TauFs Lord's Prayer.'^ 
It is one of the great prayers offered by that greatest of 
all apostles. How feAv real genuine prayers there are in 
this World. There are eight millions of heathen that never 
prayed a single i^rayer, according to God's idea of prayer ; 
seven millions of Jews who never offered a single prayer 
in the name of Jesus; and how many professed Christians 
there are who have only formal prayers. Sometimes it is 
said we should not pray out of books because we are 
formal, and yet there are some people that never pray 
out of a book and they are just as formal as any book 
could possibly be. How few people there are with a life 
that means to do all that it can to carry that prayer into 

676 



SIXTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 677 

practical effect. PauPs prayer is an ideal prayer; it is 
one of the great prayers, and may the Holy Spirit help 
us to get the wider horizon, the wider vision, of a truly 
great prayer. My theme, therefore, will be 

PAULAS GREAT PRAYER. 

And in order that we ourselves may be led to pray 
as he did, let me show you : 

I. What he saw. 
II. What he said. 

I. What he saw : Let us not forget that Paul at 
this time was a prisoner in the great city of Eome. No 
one has been able to describe that prison, but the very 
fact that we are reminded of the house in which the crim- 
inals were placed in the greatest city of the greatest gov- 
ernment that was then on earth, clearly shows us that 
Paul many a morning saw the walls of one of the greatest 
prisons in the world. 

He not only saw the walls of a great prison, but he 
saw a great congregation discouraged. He had himself 
established a congregation up in the city of Ephesus. 
He had there made known unto them the great 
Words of Jesus Christ, and heathen became Christians, 
an,d true Christians. Paul says of them: "Now, there- 
fore, 3'e are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow 
citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; 
and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and 
prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner- 
stone.'^ It was no ordinary congregation up there at 
Ephesus; it was an old established mission, one that he 
dearly loved, and yet when they heard that their former 
pastor Paul was now a prisoner in Kome, they became 
very much discouraged and wondered what would become 
of the church in the coasts of Asia Minor; and so Paul, 
through those prison walls, saw his little discouraged con- 
gregation up at Ephesus. 

He not only saw that congregation, but he saw a lost 
world that needed to be saved. In the beginning of this 



678 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

chapter lie recognizes the great fact that he was the 
apostle sent by God to convert the heathen, "Which in 
other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as 
it is now revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets 
by the Spirit ; that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, 
and of the same body, and partakers of His promise in 
Christ by the Gospel : whereof I Avas made a minister, ac- 
cording to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by 
the effectual working of His power. Unto me, who am 
less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that 
I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable 
riches of Christ." In other words, the apostle Paul recog- 
nizes the fact that he sees that he, a prisoner, now in the 
great prison of Kome, is not only surrounded by the walls 
of this prison, that he not only can see up in yonder dis- 
tance a little discouraged congregation, but that all around 
the world there are millions and millions of souls living 
in darkness, whose very light depends upon his sending 
forth the light from that dark dungeon. 

My dear friends, it is hard for us to imagine this 
morning the world as it was that day when Paul wrote 
this lesson. If you can imagine only a few hundred or a 
few thousand Christians in all the world, darkness sur- 
rounding every nation, then you Avill understand what 
it meant for Paul to be in prison that morning. Then 
you will understand how he felt when he looked out of 
those little windows and saw this great, great world, in 
darkness, perishing by the thousands every day, and no 
man to bring them the Gospel, and the one selected by 
God to do this, tied in chains. 

He not only saw a great Avorld lost, to be saved, but 
he saw a great prayer-commanding and prayer-answering 
Father in heaven. "For this cause I bow my knees unto 
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." Again he says: 
"Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly 
above all that we ask or think, according to the power 
that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the church." 
In other words, he recognized the fact that though he was 
little Paul in that prison, that there is a true and living 
God, and that the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, since 



SIXTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 679 

Christ adopted him, was his Father, and recognizing that 
his Father could be the Father of every lost man, recog- 
nizing that by human might it was impossible for a 
man in prison to enlighten the world, he also recognized 
the fact that there was one who could not be imprisoned, 
that there was a God who could not be demolished by the 
power of man ; he recognized that among all the unknown 
and false gods which he had seen with his own eyes and 
touched Avith his own hands, there is One who has the 
power to do all things; One who not only listens to the 
prayers of prisoners, but who can do more than the 
greatest prisoner in the world can even think it possible 
for him to do, and that the work will be done, despite the 
fact that the stone walls surround him in the greatest 
city of the greatest government of the world. 

He not only saw a great Father in heaven, the Father 
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, but he also 
savr a great family. "For this cause I bow my knees unto 
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole 
family in heaven and earth is named." PauPs vision of the . 
family was far broader than our vision. Some of us think 
only of the few people that eat at our table as belonging 
to our family ; then there are some people again who think 
only of those, that are living Christians as belonging to * 
their family; but the apostle Paul allowed himself that 
morning to take a wider view. He not only thought of 
himself as a prisoner, but he thought of the prophets of 
old that had been stoned to death, and torn asunder, some 
of whom were sleeping under the ground, others burned 
and the ashes scattered to the winds; he thought of the 
millions and millions of those already dead, like Abraham 
of old, who had faith in the coming of the Savior, and 
were sleeping under the ground; he thought of the souls 
that had gone home into the presence of the Father in 
heaven, the saints on high; he thought of those that 
should be born thereafter ; he thought of the funerals that 
should be held from the day that he dies until the last 
great trump shall sound and Christ shall come to raise 
the dead; he thought of all those that are under the 
ground; he thought of all those that are on the ground; 



680 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

he thought of all those that should be born, and he said, 
after all there is only one family ; God has a family ; part 
of them are in heaven and part on earth, but God's family ' 
is known by one link, they all cling to the Lord Jesus 
Christ, His only Son, and they are named after Him, and 
the Christian is not known by the name of Smith, nor 
Jones, nor Lutheran, nor Presbyterian, nor Methodist, 
but by the fact that he is a folloAver of the Lord Jesus 
Christ; and therefore, like Luther of old, he does not care 
whether his church is called by this name or that, but 
we shall be called followers of Him who is our only 
Savior, and whoever accepts Jesus as His only Savior 
and is baptized in His name, has the covenant and the 
promise that he that believeth and is baptized shall be 
saved, and he belongs to God's family, and so Paul saw 
that morning rtot only Christ, and the saved that are 
dead and the saved that shall die, but he saw them all 
on high, and everywhere, and they are all one great 
family of God. 

He saw another vision in that prison that was great, 
too, and that is, he saw a great hidden man. He speaks 
of him in the sixteenth verse: "That he would grant 
you according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened 
with might by His Spirit in the inner man." Paul never 
asked the question. What is a man worth? He never 
asked, Hoav famous is a man ; how much does he possess ; 
on which street does he live; the only question in Paul's 
mind was. Is he a man? and if he is a man he has a soul 
in him, and that soul in him is capable of being born 
again; and if that soul is born again by the Holy Spirit, 
then he has got that man such as I, Paul, in this prison, 
have got another man in me; and as I have another man 
within me, so every man up at Ephesus has another jnan 
in him, and every lost heathen man in the world has 
got the possibility of another man in him, and so all over 
this world, a man within a man, and this inner man is the 
one whom the Holy Spirit can make so powerful that the 
world cannot resist him. I see in that inner man a heart 
that can swell out with faith until it can comprehend all 
prisons, and comprehend all nations, and all worlds, and 



SIXTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 681 

even God Himself. It is possible, says Paul, for this inner 
man to have his heart swell up so big that God can live 
in it. A wonderful vision. That Christ may dwell in 
your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded 
in love, may be able to comprehend all the incomprehen- 
sible. The Bible at times seems to be full of paradoxes. 
In this same lesson he tells us about a love that no man 
can understand. ''And to know the love of Christ, which 
passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the 
fulness of God." And in spite of the fact that this love 
passeth all knowledge, he says, ''That ye, being rooted 
and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend." How 
can you comprehend a thing you cannot know? It is the 
inner man that can do this. The inner man, as I said a 
moment ago, when he has his brain sanctified by the Holy 
Spirit, begins to take that brain of his and he sinks it 
down into the very ground of God's Word until it is per- 
fectly saturated with God's eternal truth, and then the 
truth and the brain of man become one, as it were, and 
the heart of man and the brain of man, and the whole 
inner man becomes, as it were, a very part of God's love, 
and of God's knowledge, and of God's fullness, and where 
God's love is His brain is, and where God's love is his 
heart is, and where God's heart is His power is, and God 
is all in all in him and he in God, as the vine is in the 
branch and the branch throAvs its power into the vine, so 
we are one in Christ Jesus. Wonderful vision of Paul 
in prison ! And all this he saw before he prayed. 

He not only saw the great hidden man, but he saw 
the path of glory. These poor Christians up here in 
Ephesus were heart-broken, fainting, discouraged; they 
were writing letters and sending messages down to Rome : 
Paul, what will we do? If our pastor is in prison in the 
capital of Eome, what will become of the little church up 
in the capital of Ephesus? And so discouraged and faint- 
hearted were they that the apostle said to them, I must 
encourage you. Haven't you a path to glory? Instead 
of your suffering on account of my being here in prison, 
I want you to understand this is going to be your greatest 
help. "Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribu- 



682 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

lations for you, which is your gior}^^' Again : "Unto 
Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout 
all ages, world without end/' Why, says Paul, you have 
got no right to faint ; you have no right to be discouraged ; 
if I can see through these prison walls a path to glory, 
Avith all my suffering, you ought to be encouraged up 
there when you are free; if I can be happy down here 
with these chains on my hands, you ought to be happy 
with the chains off of your hands ; if I can bring my little 
church into this prison and have it here, cannot you, my 
Ephesus brethren, keep up your church up there? I see 
a path to glory, no difference what these people do to me; 
I know that I must suffer, so did Christ my Master. I 
knoAv that my path runs through the Church of God. 
There is a glorious path and I see it, and seeing all this, 
I Paul, bow my knees before the Father of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, and I now pray : O Christ, may we have the 
vision of Paul this evening that Ave may pray as he did. 
Now I did not hear that prayer, but I can easily gather 
from this lesson the substance of PauPs prayer. 

II. What he said : He said in that prayer that day, 
first. They can hurt me, but not my church. Let us not 
forget that it was no little matter for a man like Paul, 
with his education, with his powders, to be tied down into 
a little cell of a dark dungeon; but with all that Paul 
gave them to understand that his church Avas an eternal 
church, and that they could never take him out of that. 
No difference how much they might hurt him, they never 
could harm the church that Christ bought with His blood. 
^^Unto Him be .glory in the church, by Jesus Christ 
throughout all ages, Avorld without end." When Paul 
and Silas were put into another prison and their feet 
Avere fastened into the stocks, at midnight I can hear Paul 
say, Silas, where two or three are gathered together in 
Christ's name He is in the midst of them. Let us have 
a service. And they started out to sing, and there never 
was a grander church in all the world than Paul and 
Silas' church Avhen their feet were in the stocks. Their 
backs were bleeding, the blood Avas running doAvn on the 
floor where they sat, but they sang, and there never was 



SIXTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 683 

a grander choir in all the world than that duet that Paul 
and Silas sang that night. And so Paul says, They put 
me into this prison; it is dark, but my church is here 
and they cannot hurt my church. They may kill me, 
Paul, and they have killed Christ, but the very killing 
of Christ has founded the church on which I stand, and 
the very taking off of my head will inspire thousands of 
men to do what I never could have done. My church lives 
and it never can be harmed. The Savior said. Thou art 
Peter, and upon this Eock will I build My church, and 
the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. In other 
words, Paul prayed in his church. The house of God is 
a house of prayer. Hoav many people there are in these 
days who seem to think that they can be Christians even 
if they are not prisoners, outside of the church, I want 
to say right here that if one man can be saved without 
being a member of God's church, then we of all men on 
earth are the biggest fools. If one man can be saved out- 
side of God's church, why cannot all the rest of them be 
saved the same way? Paul recognized the fact that he 
was no fool for being in prison; he would rather die 
than be thrust out of the church of God. It must stand. 
Once in a while we meet people who seem to think. Well, 
if I do not like somebody in the church council, or if I 
do not like the superintendent of the Sunday School, or 
if I do not like the pastor, I will just leave the church. 
Well, my dear friends, whenever you leave for that rea- 
son, there is absolutely no Christian lost; there is left a 
soul in darkness just the same as it was before. A man 
that is a true child of God will not leave the church of 
God for any man on earth. Never. You do not go to 
church to join men; you do not go to church because 
somebody is in it, or because somebody is out of it; you 
go to the church of God because Christ is the church, and 
because you cling to Christ no difference what happens, 
and will be faithful to Him until you die ; and you cannot 
pray if you are not willing to go into the church of God 
to do your praying. 

The apostle Paul also said : They can put these limbs 
into prison, but they cannot keep them from bending. 



684 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

There are some things they can do with us and some things 
they cannot do with us. The apostle Paul was too small 
a man to fight the government of Rome ; he was too small 
a man to say, I can physically keep out of prison. He 
went into the door where they said he should walk; he 
went into the cell where they said he should stay. He 
recognized the fact that his limbs could be placed in that 
cell, and even into the stocks, and they could be liberated, 
but there is one thing, says Paul, I do not care what you 
do with me, you cannot hinder; as long as I have got the 
power to stand I have got the power to bend my knees, 
and down I go, and bow before the Father of our Lord 
Jesus Christ. Oh, what a beautiful form of true humilia- 
tion, to kneel before God in prayer! "Unto me, who am 
less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I 
should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches 
of Christ." — Unto me, who am less than the least of 
all saints ! I go down, my knees bend, I must pray to my 
Father in heaven, and all Rome cannot keep my knees 
from bending. 

In the third place Paul said. They can chain these 
hands, but they cannot keep me from writing. He tells 
us explicitly in some of these epistles of his, I write these 
with my own hands. He tells us in that great speech that 
he made before the king, that I would that ye might be 
as I am, except these chains. Oh, how many people in 
this world will let every little thing hinder them from 
performing their duties to their God. If some neighbor 
comes in at nine o'clock they will sit down and not come 
to Sunday School. If somebody wants to come and make 
a little call, you Avill sit doAA'n there and not do your duty. 
If you have done a little hard work on Saturday, then 
you are too sleepy on Sunday morning. Oh, may the day 
come when all the merchants of this city will learn the 
one great lesson that they can sell just as much merchan- 
dise in ten hours as in fifteen. Oh, may the day soon 
come when the devil will lose that power among business 
men, that he can keep all our clerks up until nearly mid- 
night and wear them out before the day comes when they 
can go to God's house and listen ; but I want to say right 



SIXTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 685 

here for the encouragement of all tired people, in all the 
discouragements you meet with, if Paul could bend the 
knee in prison and would not be hindered in writing with 
a chain on his hands, isn't it time that we overcome dif- 
ficulties? We talk about a land of liberty, but the great 
fact is that any man that will let anything hinder him 
from doing his duty is a slave to the thing that holds 
him down. And many peoj)le are slaves because they 
want to be. I know there are chains too strong for us 
to break, but there are few chains so big that we cannot 
rattle them. There are chains that are too strong for 
us to get loose, but there are few chains too heavy that 
Ave cannot hold up a pen and write a word that will live 
when the chain has gone to dust. And so I urge upon 
us all to learn of Paul how to pray. They can chain these 
liands, but they cannot keej) me from writing. 

I can see Paul that morning as he bows his knees 
before the Father and says: O Father in heaven, great 
is the government of Rome; it has placed me into this 
prison, and by my own power I cannot get out. Father 
in heaven, I know that Thou art greater — greater than 
I can conceive; and Thou wilt answer prayer, far better 
than I have ever dreamed. Now unto Thee that art able 
to do exceeding abundantly above all that I can ask or 
think. Thou art greater than Eome, and if it be Thy 
will, O Father, as Thou didst once shake the prison and 
release Silas and me, if it be Thy will. Thou canst make 
me free. My government is great, but my God, Thou art 
greater. That was Paul's prayer that morning. 

In the fifth place : They have put me into a family 
of criminals, but I belong to God's family. As they led 
Jesus Christ between two criminals on Calvary's hill in 
order that they might make it appear before the world 
that He, too, was a criminal, so they took this great 
apostle and compelled him to eat and to drink with the 
great criminals in the prison at Eome. But Paul said in 
his prayer, My Father, I do not belong to this family; 
Thou hast a family of saints on high, and Thou hast a 
family of Christians up at Ephesus ; Thou hast Christians 



686 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

over at Jerusalem; Thou hast children of God all over 
this country, and there are going to be more; this family 
is going to grow and is going to become very large ; and I 
thank Thee, my Father in heaven, that I belong to Thy 
family. 

Again, he said : They can handle this little man, but 
not my inner man. He recognized not only that there 
was an inner man in the Christian outside of prison, but 
that there was an inner man in himself. He said to him- 
self, They call me little Paul; they think that I am un- 
usually small, and they call me an ugly little Jew; but I 
want, O Father in heaven, the power of Thy Spirit in my 
soul until this might shall shake Rome. O Father in 
heaven, I realize that I am a little man, but I have a 
faith in my Savior now that SAvells out so large that He 
can dwell in my heart by faith. O Father in heaven, I 
realize that in this head of mine there is a small brain, 
but there is power in this brain of mine to flash to the 
ends of the earth, and I am thinking of the height, and 
the depth, and of the breadth of the great love of God; 
I am thinking this morning of the fact that Thy love is 
longer than the history of the world; deeper than the 
gates of hell ; higher than the throne of heaven. O, my 
Father in heaven, I am strong in Thee ! 

Finally : They think they are keeping me out of the 
mission field a few years, but I shall never leave it until 
the end of the world. PauFs prayer was a wonderful 
prayer. The people up at Ephesus thought the church is 
going down because their leader is in prison. Paul did 
not think so. Paul knew very well that those prophets 
of old that were stoned to death were not dead. Paul 
knew very well that anything that is not worth dying 
for is not worth having. Paul knew that if he were 
living he could only go around in a few of these different 
nations and tell the story of Christ, and then lie down 
and die, and that would be the end of it. He knew fur- 
ther that if God in His infinite wisdom saw fit, that some 
day this little apostle should be led out, led to the block, 
his neck made bare and the knife placed over him to come 
down and cut that head off, that the angels of God 



SIXTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 687 

might be there to put the crown on it. He knew very 
well that if he had to spill his blood in this cause, that 
the blood, would talk louder and longer than all the words 
that fell from his tongue. He knew that if he would die 
for Christ that the spirit of Paul would animate every 
missionary that goes out into the field as long as the 
world shall stand. 

And Paul was not mistaken. He ]3rayed that morn- 
ing that you might have his spirit, that his work shall go 
on until the ends of the earth. My dear friends, where 
can you find a mission field to-da}- without the spirit of 
Paul in it? Where can you find a genuine prayer today 
that has not got the yjrayer of Paul in it? Are Ave pray- 
ing as we should? Are Ave praying for missions? I am 
afraid, my friends, as I said in the beginning, some of 
our pra3^ers,are never heard. When a man prays God 
to save the Avorld and then reaches into his pocket and 
gives about the wages of half a day in a year to save 
souls, I do not think that prayer ever goes above his scalp. 
I do not think that God ever pays any attention to it. 
When a man prays for the salvation of the Avorld and is 
a stingy idolater, God pays no more attention to him than 
He does to yonder stone that lies in the street. When 
a man prays for missions and lets his own children grow 
up as children of the devil, I do not think God ever listens 
to him. Paul's prayer had in it this thought: My God, 
there is not a place on earth I am not willing to run if 
Thou wilt let me out of this prison. . My God,, there is 
not a Avork that I am not willing to do, and earn my own 
living, if Thou Avilt only let me preach Christ to a dying 
world. My God, since I am in this prison and cannot get 
out, if it will do any good cut my head off, and write 
with my blood instead of with ink, the mighty message 
to the world, that will inspire people to pray for missions. 

I am glad to say that these plain simple sermons, - 
preached by an humble Christian, are having their effect. 
I am glad to announce this morning that there is at least 
one member in this church who from this day on is going 
to support a missionary himself in foreign fields; and I 
do hope that the day will come when we will not go home 



688 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

and figure out $1.33 for ten causes, but I hope the day 
will come when every man Avill go home and say, How 
much do I need to feed my family; how much do I need 
to clothe my family; how much do I need to support my 
church; how much do I need to pay my taxes; how much 
do I need to lay up that I may not be a pauper when I 
am old ; what can I spare ; what can I give for God ; what 
can I give for the salvation of souls? If it is fifty dol- 
lars, then fifty dollars ; if it is fifty cents, fifty cents I will 
give; if it is five dollars, ^Ye dollars I will give; if it is 
a thousand, a thousand I will give ; and if Thou wilt take 
my life, here it is, my God. Then, my friends, when you 
go to doing business that way with God, then I believe 
that God will say. Angels, listen; there is a man down 
there praying. When Paul was converted and God told 
Ananias to hunt him up. He knew what Ananias was 
hunting; He knew that there was something over there 
called a man, in the street called Straight, that was 
worth hunting, for Behold! He prayeth. Why did God 
tell Ananias to hunt Paul? Because he knew that the 
day would come when Paul would hunt God and say, 
Here, God, I am; take my life to save the world. That 
prayer was worth listening to; and may we pray from 
this day on so that our prayers are accompanied by a 
life and a determination to give our whole bodies and 
souls to His service, so that we will be heard. And until 
we are willing to give and to do as God wants us to do, 
let us have the respect before the throne of God to keep 
our mouths shut and not pray at all. This is plain talk 
but it is true Christianity, and may God move us to have 
the right missionary spirit to live and see what Paul saw, 
and to pray as Paul prayed. Tlien we, too, shall some- 
time see the great path of glory. Amen. 

PRAYER. 

O God, our heavenly Father, we thank Thee for the great message 
of the morning, and we pray Thee that this message will inspire us 
with the spirit of an apostle Paul to have the wider vision of the 
world, the wider vision of the lost souls of the world, the wider vision 
of the permanency of the church of God, the wider vision of the great- 



SIXTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 689 

ness of our Father in heaven. O Lord our God, do Thou help us this 
evening to pray as he prayed; do Thou help us to see that all prayers 
to be effectual, must be honest with our own consciences, hor^^st with 
our own souls, honest before God and in harmony with His Word. 
And we pray Thee this evening that Thou wilt give a spiritual blessing 
to this whole congregation. May the Missionary Society already exist- 
ing have such an influence on every mother, and every woman, and 
every man and every child that we may be one great missionary society 
to proclaim salvation through Christ to a dying world. And now we 
ask Thee to go with us to our respective homes, and may our life's 
pra3'er be in substance the one taught by our Holy Savior Jesus Christ : 
Our Father who art in heaven ; Hallowed be Thy name ; Thy 
kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven; Give 
us this day our daily bread ; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation; 
But dehver us from evil; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



44 



SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 
The One Baptism. 

Eph. 4:5. 

One Lord, one faith, one baptism. 



Beloved in Christ : 

Much has been said recently in this city on the mode 
and subject of baptism. If those churches which believe 
only in immersion and adult baptism are in the right, 
then God have mercy on over ninety per cent, of all pro- 
fessed Christians. There is no question in the Christian 
Church as to who this one Lord is — described in the 
folloAving verse in tliese words : "One God and Father of 
all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all." 
This one Lord is the same God who said in the first chap- 
ter of Genesis, "Let us make man in our image"; the 
same God whom the angels praised by singing three times, 
"Holy, Holy, Holy art Thou, Lord God of Sabaoth"; the 
same Triune God who manifested Himself when Christ 
was baptized in the river Jordan, and the Father said 
from heaven, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am 
well pleased"; and the Holy Spirit came down on Him 
in the form of a dove ; the same God in whose name Jesus 
commanded the disciples to make disciples of all nations, 
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, 
and of the Holy Ghost. The one faith is the faith given 
by the Holy Spirit in the Christ that died on Calvary, 
whose Father is our Father. The one Lord, the one faith 
and the one baptism, is the central doctrine of the Chris- 
tian Church. What is 

690 



SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 691 

THE ONE BAPTISM 

spoken of in our text? I answer: 

I. It is not simply immersion. 
II. It is not simply for adults. 

I. The immersionists claim that no one has a right 
to the name of Christian who has not been immersed in 
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost, and consequently their claim is not only great, 
but they deem their mission great. They consider it their 
holy duty to step into the folds of other churches, where 
people think they are baptized, and compel them to go 
under the water. It is our mission to instruct them and 
show them that baptism does not necessarily imply im- 
mersion. 

1. The unquestionable immersions of the Bible were 
not baptisms. If immersion in itself were a baptism, then 
those ivere haptized ivho died in the flood, who were 
drowned in the Red Sea; then the axe that sank in the 
ivaters of the Jordan was baptized; then Jonah, who was 
swallowed hy the large fish, and the sivlne that ran into 
the sea, possessed of devils , must all have been baptized. 

When Adam and Eve were created, then the whole 
world knew the true and living God. There were no 
ignorant heathen then, but soon the people made the 
same mistake they are making today. Christian men 
married heathen women. The result was that the heathen 
won the victory and the people forgot their God. One 
hundred and twenty years God gave them to repent. He 
told the only righteous man, Noah, to build an ark, 
and to give them a warning which they did not heed. 
At last the ark was finished; two by two, and seven by 
seven of all the animals that could not live in the water, 
were placed in that ark; four men and their wives also 
entered; then the rain began to fall; the valleys were 
covered, the hills, the mountains, the highest trees, every 
high point in the world was covered by more than fifteen 
cubits of water. One by one the whole world was im- 
mersed ; a year and ten days before the waters were dried 



692 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

up; little children, old and young, large and small, could 
have been seen lying over the world, dead. They were 
all immersed, but not baptized. 

You know the story of Israel in Eg^^pt, how for four 
hundred and thirty years they multiplied until there were 
six hundred thousand men who could carry arms, besides 
women and children. You know how they were made 
slaves until God sent Moses to deliver them. You know 
the story of the ten plagues, and liow on that last night 
when they ate the paschal lamb, they started for the Ked 
Sea. You know how Pharaoh refused time and again to 
let them go, and finally followed them with six hundred 
chosen chariots, besides others. Moses and the children 
of Israel reached the Eed Sea; the enemy was behind 
them ; they could not go to the right nor to the left ; there 
was nothing else to do but to march forward. God told 
Moses to strike the Avaters with his staff; they divided, 
and the children of Israel crossed over on dry land; they 
sang a song of victory when the waters returned and 
Pharaoh and his host were all drowned. They were 
immersed, but not baptized. 

You know the story of the sons of the prophets who 
invited Elislia to go with them down to the river Jordan 
to build a little temple there; they took an axe with 
them and began to cut down a tree; the axe slipped off 
and fell into the water; the one who lost it exclaimed, 
"Alas, my axe! it was borrowed.'' Elisha threw in a 
stick and made the axe to swim; it came to the top of 
the water. It was immersed, but surely not baptized. 

You know the story of the prophet Jonah, whom 
God sent to Nineveh to preach repentance to that great 
city. Instead of going to Nineveh as commanded by his 
God, he started down to Joppa, bought a ticket and 
started for Tarshish on a heathen vessel. They had not 
gone very far out into the sea until the storms came, until 
the very keel seemed to plow the bottom of the ocean, 
and the masts seemed to pierce the clouds. It was dis- 
covered that there was something unusual about this 
storm. Lots were cast to find out who was the cause. 
At last they find Jonah asleep; they wake him up; his 



SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 693 

own conscience tells him that he is the cause; he con- 
fesses that he is a Hebrew and deserves death, and they 
resolve to throw him out. Out into the sea they pitch 
him, and he is swallowed by a large fish which God pre- 
pared especially for him. They tell us that this is an 
old fable; they tell us it is impossible that Jonah should 
have lived three days in the bowels of that large fisli, for- 
getting that we have lived a more miraculous life than 
that ourselves. Let us not forget that Jesus said as 
Jonah was three days in the bowels of the fish, so he 
Avould sleep three days in the bowels of the earth. If 
there was no such man as Jonah, if he was not in the 
large fish dowm in the sea, then there wa^ no Savior, and 
the Savior was not dead, and did not rise from the dead. 
Then let us not forget to hold fast to every word of God. 
Jonah was there immersed, but who would say he was 
baptized? 

You know the story of Christ in the storm on the 
Sea of Galilee. When He crossed over that sea He met 
the Gadarene who was possessed with devils; even 
iron bands could not hold him. The very devils ex- 
claimed, '^Let us fiee into those swine.'' It was wrong 
for the Jews to raise swine. God had a perfect right to 
take til em from them, and so He permitted the devils to 
enter into the swine, and the swine plunged down into 
the sea. They all drowned; no man will deny that 
they were immersed, but who would say that they were 
baptized? 

It must be evident from what has now been said that 
there must be a vast difference between immersion and 
baptism, and that the unquestionable immersions of the 
Holy Word of God are not baptisms. 

2. It is not necessarily immersion to go into the 
Avater and come out again. Much stress has been laid 
by immersionists on the word ^baptizo,' which is an in- 
tense form of ^bapto.' They tell us that this word means 
to dip, to immerse, to i3lunge, and consequently that bap- 
tize means immersion. No Bible scholar or Greek scholar 
will deny that ^baptizo' originally meant immersion, but 
we do deny that this word has only one meaning. Sup- 



694 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

pose in two thousand years from now some one should 
pick up an English book, and this language were a dead 
language; suppose he should look into an English dic- 
tionary and find the Avord ^spring'; this word originally 
meant to leap. Suppose he reads this sentence : "I have 
found a spring in my watch/' would it be correct then 
to translate the sentence, ^'I have found a leap in my 
watch"? Suppose he found another sentence, "The flow- 
ers bloom in the spring,'' would he translate the sentence, 
"The flowers bloom in the leap"? The word has another 
meaning — ^fountain'. Would it be correct to say, when 
he looked into his watch, that he had broke the foun- 
tain? When we look up the word ^spring' in the latest 
English dictionary, we find it has now fifteen distinctive 
meanings ; there was a time when it had only one. How 
shall we know the correct meaning of the word ^baptize'? 
Surely by the use of that word in the Greek translations 
of the Old Testament, and the original of the New. Let 
us look at some examples in the Word of God in which 
there seems to be no doubt in the minds of some people^ 
but that they were immersed. 

I refer first of all to the Syrian captain, Naaman, 
who was afflicted with leprosy. A Jewish maiden referred 
him to the great prophet Elisha, telling him that if the 
great proj)het could see him he would surely cure him. 
Naaman started out to see Elisha; he expected to meet 
him personally, and, as he says in his own words, he 
expected that prophet "to strike his hand over the place, 
and recover the leper," showing plainl,y that he was not 
leprous all over his body, but only in a certain part. He 
was disappointed; instead of seeing Naaman, a messen- 
ger met him at the gate and told him to go down to the 
river Jordan and wash himself in that river seven times. 
The angry captain rebelled against such an act, and re- 
ferred to the two rivers near Damascus, which were just 
as good as the river Jordan; but his servant asked him 
if he would have objected to doing a hard thing, if not, 
why not do such an easy thing as to go down to the Jor- 
dan and wash himself seven times. We are told that 
Naaman went down and dipped himself into that river^ 



SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 695 

according to the word of the man of God. I call your 
attention to this truth, that Elisha never said he should 
go and immerse himself, but rather that he should wash 
himself, and this he did, according to the command, seven 
times. There is no proof tliat Naaman was immersed, 
yet he was baptized, according to the language of the 
Septuagint. The Septuagint is a Greek translation of 
the Hebrew Bible, made two hundred and eighty-five years 
before Christ, by seventy translators, hence its name. 

Another character, the greatest character in all his- 
tory, is claimed to have been immersed. I refer to Jesus 
Christ Himself. We read in Matt. 3:16, "And Jesus, 
when He was baptized, went up straightway out of the 
water, and, lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and 
He saAv the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and rest- 
ing upon Him.'' It is claimed that these words distinctly 
teach tliat Jesus Christ was immersed when He was bap- 
tized. Let me call jouv attention to the statement, that 
"when He was baptized He went up straightway out of 
the water"; in other words, the coming out of the water 
had absolutely nothing to do with His baptism; the bap- 
tism was completed before there is anything said about 
whether He stayed in the water or came out. But who 
knows that Jesus Christ was under the water? In two 
hours from now I could drive a team of horses to a river 
where I went bathing many a time in my boyhood days; 
there was seldom a week that we did not go into the 
Mohican river, and when we were done bathing we came 
up straightway out of the water and went home. Only 
once do I remember of having been put under the water; 
the other days I kept my head above the Avater, and yet 
we always went straightway out of the water. How else 
could one do, after going into the water, but to come up 
out of the water? If your little son were playing in a 
stream only half a foot deep, how would you call him 
out? Surely you would say, "Come up out of that water." 
Does that mean he was under the water? Not at all. 
But we are told by scholars that the Greek ^eis' means to 
go into, and ^ek' means to come out of, and that, there- 
fore, it could be nothing else but an immersion. Strange 



696 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

that *eis' should always mean into, when in the 11th 
chapter of John we read that Mary fell down at the feet 
of Jesns — in the Greek ^eis'. If it is true that *eis' 
means only to go into, or fall into, then Mary actually 
fell into the feet of Jesus. Either Jesus must have had 
very large feet, or Mary must have been very, very small. 
Any one who is unprejudiced can see that those who 
hold only to immersion are straining every nerve to bring 
about an immersion whether there was one or not. The 
only painting of the fourth century extant, pictures John 
standing on a rock baptizing Jesus with a little shell. 
No difference whether He was immersed, or sprinkled, or 
the water was poured on Him, He was in the water, and 
there is not one word which would prove that John was 
in it. 

Let us look for a moment at another proof for im- 
mersion. They tell us that when Philip baptized the 
eunuch that surely the eunuch was immersed. How do 
we know that he was? They were passing through a 
desert. AVater was scarce enough that Philip did not 
see the water until the eunuch called his attention to it. 
They stepped out of the chariot; the Bible tells us dis- 
tinctly tliey both went into the water, and when the 
eunuch was baptized they both came up out of the water. 
Now the immersionists must admit one of two things, 
either that the eunuch was not under the water, or that 
Philip Avas under when he baptized the eunuch. What 
is said of one is said of the other; but whoever saw an 
immersionist minister get under the water to immerse 
another? 

It seems to me that John ought to know how he 
baptized. When the commission was sent to him to give 
an account of himself, he exclaimed, "I baptize with 
water'' — he did not say, "I immerse," but ^en' with a 
substantive always shows the instrument that is used, and 
consequently the only conclusion we can draw is this, 
that water in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy 
Ghost, is a baptism, whether in the river Jordan, or up 
in the jail, or by the many springs at Enon. 

3. Many were baptized who were never immersed. 



SEVKNTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 697 

Tlie same Septuagint referred to before, tells us plainly 
in Leviticus 14:1-6 what the law of the leper was in the 
day of his cleansing. He shall be brought unto the 
priest, and the priest shall go forth out of the camp 
and shall examine him. Then shall the priest command 
to take for him that is to be cleansed two birds alive and 
clean, and cedar wood, and scarlet and hyssop; and the 
IDriest shall command that one of the birds be killed in 
an earthen vessel over running water. As for the living 
bird, he shall take it, and the cedar wood, and the scarlet, 
and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird 
into the blood of the bird that was killed over the running 
water. Notice well, the English Bible gives the word 
'dip' where the Septuagint uses the word ^baptize.' Now 
in the name of common sense, how could one little bird 
— literally a sparrow — slied enough blood to immerse 
the other bird in it, together with the cedar Avood, and 
the scarlet and the hyssop? Suppose you should give a 
Campbelite preacher tAvo chickens for a present, and tell 
him to cut the head off o^ one and let it bleed into a ves- 
sel, and then immerse the other chicken into the blood; 
could he do it? Just as well as this one little bird could 
be immersed into the blood of the other. In order to meet 
this argument, the immersionists have tried to make us 
believe that the little bird was dipped into the running 
water. What Avill they not do to carry out their own 
ideas instead of sticking strictly to God's Word! 

You know the familiar story of Nebuchadnezzar, who 
had a wonderful dream of a tree Avhose branches spread 
out over the world and reached to the skies. To make a 
long story short, this tree, which became barren, Avas a 
representative of Nebuchadnezzar, who Avas to lose his 
mind and walk out into the fields, and eat grass like an 
ox. We are told in Daniel 4:33, in the English Bible, 
that his body was wet Avith the dcAV of heaven. The 
Greek translation tells us that he AAas baptized Avith the 
dew of heaven. We must either imagine dcAv drops seven 
feet in diameter, into which Nebuchadnezzar could plunge 
or immerse himself, or Ave must imagine him to be about 
half as large as a common pea, to be immersed in a good- 



698 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

sized dew drop. If ^baptize' means only to plun^^e or 
immerse, tlien the sentence in the Bible, "John the Bap- 
tist baptized in the wilderness," Avould literally mean that 
John the plunger plunged into the Avilderness. 

In Mark 7:4 we are told that it was the tradition 
of the elders that when they come from the market except 
they wash they eat not. And many other things there be, 
which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups 
and pots, brazen vessels, and of tables, or, as stated in the 
margin, beds. Now the Greek Testament tells us dis- 
tinctly that before they ate they baptized their cups and 
pots and brazen vessels and beds. If baptized means only 
to immerse, then it was their custom to immerse their 
beds before each meal, surely a custom that we would 
not want at present. 

In the 16th chapter of Acts we read of Paul and 
Silas praying and singing at midnight; tliat a sudden 
earthquake shook the foundation of the prison, and all 
the doors were opened, and every one's bands were 
loosed; that the keeper of the prison was about to com- 
mit suicide, when Paul cried out with a loud voice, say- 
ing, "Do thyself no harm, for we are all here"; then he 
called for a light and sprang in, and came trembling, 
and fell down before Paul and Silas, saying, "Sirs, what 
must I do to be saved?" Paul instructed them in the 
Word of God, and the inspired Truth says, "He took 
them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes 
and was baptized, he and all his straightAvay." It takes 
quite a stretch of imagination to see a river running 
through the jail, and Paul plunging them into that water 
the same hour of the night. 

For the sake of argument it is sometimes claimed 
that the very reason John baptized along the river Jor- 
dan was because there was plenty of water there to im- 
merse. If that were true, why did not the day of Pente- 
cost occur dow^n along the river Jordan instead of in the 
upper room where there was no water? If the multi- 
tudes had to be immersed down along the river, why did 
the three thousand on the day of Pentecost not receive 
their baptism down at the Jordan? Surely it takes quite 



SEVENTEENTH SUNDxKY AFTER TRINITY. 699 

a stretch of the imagination, and a digging of many pools 
and cisterns to satisfy the mind of the immersionist with 
regard to the baptism of the people of Jerusalem. 

How about Paul — was he immersed? If there is 
any one verse that immersionists think they have a pat- 
ent right on, it is Komans 6 :4, ^'Therefore we are buried 
with Him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was 
raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even 
so we also should walk in newness of life." They lay 
the whole stress on the word hurled^ forgetting other 
words in the same verse. This verse does not say we are 
buried with Him in baptism; it does not say that Jesus 
Christ was buried in the river Jordan. Either Jesus 
Christ was buried in the river Jordan and drowned there, 
or our burial in Him does not refer to the form of bap- 
tism, for we are told here that, like as Christ was raised 
up from the dead, not from the water, hj the glory of 
the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of 
life. When we were baptized by sprinkling, as little in- 
fants, we received the benefits of the death of Jesus Christ, 
His atonement, and as He was buried, not in the Jor- 
dan, but in the sepulclire, and arose again from the dead, 
so we, by our covenant, should each day rise in newness 
of life. Was Paul immersed? That is the question. It 
seems to me he ought to know. In Acts 22, he tells us 
how he was baptized. He tells us that one Ananias, "a 
devout man according to the law, having a good report 
of all the Jews which dwelt there, came unto me, and 
stood, and said unto me. Brother Saul, receive thy sight, 
and the same hour I looked up at him. And he said, 
"The God of our Fathers hath chosen thee, that thou 
shouldst know His Avill, and see that Just One, and 
shouldst hear the voice of His mouth. For thou shalt be 
His witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and 
heard. And now why tarriest thou? Arise, and be bap- 
tized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of 
the Lord." If this last verse says anything, it does say 
that Paul stood up when he was to be baptized; it does 
not say that they went to any river, or that he was 
under the Avater, but we do find here, as in many other 



700 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

r 

passages of Scripture, the real meaning of the word bap- 
tizo in New Testament times; it meant to purify; to 
cleanse; and with that meaning it will fit anywhere in 
God's Holy Word. It makes no difference then whether 
they baptized down at the river Jordan, or up in the jail, 
or at Enon, no difference where they found water, in the 
name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, they could have 
a baptism. 

It does seem strange that in this world of colleges 
and universities, where the leading schools all teach in- 
fant baptism, and the mode of sprinkling, that all these- 
professors should never have discovered the real meaning 
of haptizo. Did Dr. Luther, who translated the Bible 
into German, not know what haptizo meant? Did Me- 
lanchthon not know? Do the ninety per cent, of all pro- 
fessed Christians in the world, know nothing about the 
meaning of this word? Suppose haptizo did mean to 
immerse; to dip; to plunge; if God saw fit to put into that 
word the meaning of purify, shall we object to it? Did 
not God promise the Holy Spirit to those that were bap- 
tized? Shall we say that all the great men of God during 
the Reformation, filled with the Holy Spirit, were not 
Christians? Shall we say that the great Reformation 
was fought by men that were not baptized at all? Did it 
take thousands of years to find out that one must be 
plunged under the water to be baptized? Is it the water, 
or is it the Word, the Holy Spirit, who regenerates? Let 
us tlien not forget that immersion, while it is a baptism, 
is not the only form of baptism, and when it is claimed 
that we must be immersed or we are not baptized, we 
simply will not yield to that kind of tyranny. The one 
baptism is not one with regard to the quantity of water, 
but it is water, in large quantities or small, in the name 
of the Father, and of the Son, and Holy Ghost. 

II. The one baptism does not exclude the babe one 
day old. We have heard of the form of baptism. The 
next question wliich presents itself is this : Who may be 
baptized ? There are two kinds of inconsistent Chris- 
tians. There are some who profess to believe that the 
immersion of the adult believer is the only correct form 



SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 701 

of baptism, and at the same time three little infants of 
such families have been brought to me during the past 
year to be baptized. Now if infants are not subjects to 
baptize, surely those parents are inconsistent to bring 
them to a Lutheran pastor to have tliem baptized. If 
infant baptism is Scriptural, then the Campbellite church 
is not the Christian Church. If infant baptism is not 
Scriptural, then the Lutherans have no right to call their 
churcli the Christian Church. There are Lutherans just 
as inconsistent as the Campbellites. The Lutheran Church 
believes in infant baptism, and yet there are Lutheran 
parents — so-called — who do not have their children bap- 
tized. If infant baptism is at all Scriptural, there is no 
reason why a child should not be baptized as soon as pos- 
sible after it is born. I believe in infant baptism, and so 
thoroughly so that I have vowed long ago that if the Lord 
should give me another child or children, I would baptize 
them just as soon as they can be taken to the altar. In 
order to bring the truth home to you this evening which I 
have in mind, I shall give you six reasons why I should 
baptize my children, hereafter, as soon as possible. 

1. Because these children must be born again before 
they can enter heaven. I have no dispute with people who 
will argue against this truth ; it is a dispute between them 
and their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. If ever the 
Savior stated a truth plainly. He did when He stated the 
necessity of the new birth. In John 3:3 He states that 
except man — '^f?, in Greek, a human being — be born 
again he cannot see the kingdom of God. We are not 
here to explain the mysteries of God, nor to say why God 
said this or that, but as Christian people we believe that 
God knows best what heaven is and what Ave are, and what 
must be done with the human race before it can enter 
heaven. One who pretends to be very smart, said to me,, 
during the past week, "If a child should be born in a 
potato patch, would that make the child a potato?'^ This: 
may seem like a smart saying, but it is far from stating 
the truth which we have stated when we quote the new 
birth as given by Christ. -We are not sinners because we 
are born into a sinful world, but because we are born 



702 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

of sinful parents. Jesus said, "That which is born of 
flesh is flesh.'^ He did not say, The flesh that is born into 
the world is flesh. If we were born of a potato, we would 
be a potato, whether born in the patch or somewhere else, 
and tlius Ave are all born in sin because we are born of 
sinful beings. My little child a day old cannot be any- 
thing else but born in sin. Paul would say of that child 
that he is by nature a child of wrath. God would say, 
how can a clean thing come out of that which is unclean? 
There is none good, no, not one. Our righteousnesses are 
as filthy rags. This is the first reason I would have for 
having my child baptized as soon as possible. No sin shall 
enter heaven. 

2. God wants all baptized who enter heaven. The 
last command that Christ gave to His disciples before 
His ascension was this, "Go ye into all the world and 
make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name 
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghosf 
Notice well that the Lord Jesus drew no line between 
infants and adults, or between those of accountability, 
and those who have not yet reached that age. All the 
human beings in the Avorld belong to the nations of the 
world. All are born in sin. The Savior died for all, and 
baptism is one of tlie means of grace which will apply to 
all who can enter heaven. We do not believe that the 
gates of the church should be made narrower than the 
gates of heaven, nor wider, but that the one should har- 
monize with the other. Little infants are Avanted in hea- 
ven. Is baptism holier than heaA^en itself? Shall God 
admit them there, and shall they not be admitted to this 
holy sacrament? When God sa^^s do a thing, it is our 
duty to do it. Notice the means God uses to make 
disciples. If I say, "Fatten a horse, feeding him corn 
and oats," I do not mean that he is to be fattened 
first, and then fed, but it is the feeding of the corn and 
oats which is to make him fat. Apply the same grammar 
to the command of Christ, and you understand what He 
means. "Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them," 
can mean nothing else than to use this baptism as a means 
of grace for those that are to be saved. My little child 



SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 703 

ought to be baptized on the first day for the reason that 
some children never reach the second day. I have one 
child in heaven that only lived in this world twenty-five 
hours. How could I wait two weeks, or twelve years to 
have that child born of water and the Spirit? 

3. A third reason why I should have that child 
baptized soon is because baptism is the only way 
we have of bringing infants to Jesus. This may seem 
like a strange assertion, but I shall prove it to you in 
a few moments. The means of grace are the Word of God 
and the Holy Sacraments. Through these means the Holy 
Spirit comes to man. Can we preach the Gospel to a little 
infant? How can the Word be applied to that child 
through the preaching service? You all understand that 
we cannot, therefore, open the door for the Holy Spirit 
to come to that child directly through the preaching of 
the Gospel. We cannot even pray that child into the king- 
dom of heaven. It is true we are taught to pray "Thy 
kingdom come,'' but praying "Thy kingdom come," and 
doing nothing never yet made Christians of heathen. If 
we could pray people into the kingdom of heaven, it would 
be time that we call our missionaries home and stop rais- 
ing money for foreign missions. If we could pray people 
into the kingdom of heaven, why do we not all stop our 
paying and working and just pray for God to make the 
world Christian? No person was ever prayed into the 
kingdom of heaven. The Lord Himself said, "The harvest 
truly is great and the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore 
the Lord of the harvest that he would send forth laborers 
into his harvest;" He did not say. Pray, that the people 
may come into the harvest, or that the harvest may be 
reaped without laborers. 

The duty of bringing little children to the Savior is 
felt by all churches. A day has been set apart even by 
Mr. Dowie to bring the children to him that he may conse- 
crate them to God by prayer. This shows clearly that he 
feels in his own heart that something must be done for 
those poor little children, but where in all God's Word 
does it say, bring the children to Dowie; or where does it 
say that in order to pray for them you must bring then? 



704 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

to a man? If little children can be prayed into the king- 
dom of heaven, why cannot Dowie pray them there with- 
out bringing them to him ; or if prayer alone will save the 
world, Avhy do people need to go to him to have him pray 
for them? If we want to pray for people, we can pray for 
them wherever they are. The Lord Jesus did command us 
to bring the little children to Him. "Suffer the little chil- 
dren to come unto Me, and forbid them not, for of such 
is the kingdom of heaven.'' Jesus is not in our midst, so 
that we can see Him personally and lay these infants in 
His arms as they did when He was here in body, yet He 
is here and He wants them brought to Him, and the only 
means He has left us to bring the children actually in con- 
nection with the means of grace is holy baptism — water 
in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost can be 
applied to a little infant just as Avell as to a hardened 
sinner. Now, just because my little child a day old can- 
not understand the Gospel when it is preached, and cannot 
in that way be brought into the kingdom of God, therefore 
we will pray for the child, but at the same time bring it 
as the Savior said, and lay it in His arms in holy baptism, 
and give it back to Him. 

4. Another reason why I should have this child 
baptized soon, is because baptism is a covenant. 
When God circumcised Abraham he was seventy-five 
years old; He could not make him an infant; it is 
impossible for us to make old sinners infants and baptize 
them in their infancy; nevertheless God demands that old 
sinners become like little children before they can be con- 
verted, and before they can be baptized. Abraham, 
seventy-five years of age, was commanded to bring his 
children when they were eight days of age, and God made 
a covenant with them, that thereby they should be mem- 
bers of the church of Israel. That covenant was kept up 
throughout the history of Israel. Christ Himself, at, the 
age of eight days, was circumcized, and received the name 
of Jesus. This Avas before He was baptized, or before 
Christian baptism was a custom. Then He instituted holy 
baptism and commanded the disciples as we have heard, 
to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them, and gave 



SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 705 

tLem this great promise, He that believeth and is baptized 
shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned. 
There we have the warning and the covenant, and little 
children come into this covenant just as well as older 
people. 

We hear some one say, How can a little infant be- 
lieve? Dear friends, faith is a gift of God, as we all ac- 
knowledge. No man can believe by his own power. The 
Bible says that no man can say that Jesus Christ is Lord 
but by the Holy Ghost. Now, if faith is a gift of God, is it 
not just as easy for God Almighty to give faith to an inno- 
cent little babe as it is to an old hardened sinner? But is 
it not true that little infants can believe? What is belief? 
Belief means to trust. Hoav old was your babe when it 
began to trust you, Oh mother? Do you not know it 
trusted you the first day? That little babe did not under- 
stand all about its surroundings, but it trusted you as Avell 
then as it ever did thereafter. The Lord Jesus ought to 
know whether little infants can believe or not. He took a 
small child, set it in the midst of the disciples and said, 
"He that offendeth one of these little ones tohich believe in 
Me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged 
about his neck and he were drowned in the depth of the 
sea.'' In other words, if you do not bring your little chil- 
dren to Jesus it were better, sa^^^s Christ, for you to take a 
rope and tie one end around your neck, and tlie other to a 
stone, and throw it into the water where it is deep enough 
to pull you in after it. I shall force you to admit one of 
two things, either that little children cannot believe or that 
they can. If they cannot believe, I shall force you to the 
conclusion that they must be damned, for Jesus said. He 
that believeth not shall be damned. Would you admit for 
a moment that God would damn an innocent little child? 
Then why not admit that God can give it a saving faith 
through the means of grace, and thereby make it a child 
of God? The moment a child is baptized in the name of 
the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, God says, it is My child. 
But, you may say, this little infant may afterwards reject 
the Savior. May not old sinners do the same? Have you 
45 



706 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

ever heard of people that were baptized when they were 
past twelve, or fifteen, or twenty years of age, who after- 
wards rejected their Savior? Does that elt'ect the bap- 
tism? Does that change the covenant on the part of God? 
God never will break His covenant. You may break yours. 
The Bible does not say that. He that is baptized shall be 
saved, but he that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved, 
and he that believeth not shall be damned, baptized or 
not. I want my child to be in the covenant of God as 
soon as possible, and therefore shall have it brought to 
Him by water and the Spirit. 

5. Another reason why I shall do this, is because 
the New Testament Christians had their infants baptized. 
The statement is often made : Show me a single example in 
the Bible where people baptized their infants, and then 
I will give up. Even if we cannot show such an example, 
there is nothing in that kind of an argument. When the 
Lord Jesus tells us to do a thing, it is our duty to do it, 
whether we can find an example of any one who did it or 
not. When God says, make disciples of all nations, baptiz- 
ing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and 
of the Holy Ghost, He means for us to do so, and it is not 
our business to ask Did anybody ever obey? A few days 
ago a member of the Campbellite church said to me if I 
could point out one single case of infant baptism to her 
in the Bible, she would give up. I said to her, "You have 
the Holy Communion in your church, do you not?" "Yes," 
she said, "and every Sunday, too f "Well," said I, "if you 
can show me a single example in the Holy Scriptures 
where a woman ever went to communion, I will give up." 
She understands very well that she has a right to go to 
communion because Christ instituted it for sinners who 
believe in the words of institution, but she cannot see how 
infants can be baptized when Christ included them in His 
command. Where in the Bible do we read that an Indian 
was baptized, or a heathen from the Sandwich Islands? 
Do we mean to say, therefore, that they have no right to 
be baptized? 

But we need not search in vain for infant baptism in 
the New Testament. There were five whole families bap- 



SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 707 

tized. It would seem very natural that in an age when it 
was considered a disgrace not to have children, some child 
would he found in five families. But there is anotlier argu- 
ment that some people overlook in the New Testament. 
The New Testament was not written in a day. The his- 
tory of the New Testament includes a period of at least 
sixty years from the time the first chapters were written 
until the Book was closed. Many of these parents were 
baptized in the beginning of tliese sixty years; they had 
time to rear children or grandchildren, but where within 
the lids of the Ncav Testament do you find a single example 
of children of Christian parents who were allowed to grow 
up and be baptized afterwards? There isn't a single case. 
This silence on the part of the New Testament ouglit to 
convince one of unprejudiced mind tliat the custom of the 
New Testament was for wliole households to ha baptized, 
including tlie little infants. 

6. The final reason I give for having my child bap- 
tized, not only in infancy, but as soon as possible, 
is this, it is the only way for the world ever to be won 
for Christ Jesus. Surely the spirit of the Gospel is to 
miake Christians of all nations. Pray tell me, hoAv shall 
we make Christians of all nations if Christian people are 
going to continue to rear heathen in their own families? 
Suppose for a single moment that this church were to 
.undertake to Christianize the Avorld, and the pastor and 
his wife are baptized, and the children are permitted to 
choose for themselves; Brother Jolinston and his wife are 
baptized and his children can do as they please; Brotlier 
Smith and his wife are baptized, but the children can do 
as they please; suppose we all go on in that way, how shall 
we make Christians of other people, when at our very 
tables are sitting heathen multiplying and growing every 
day? Surely if there is one command that God has given 
to parents it is this, that they and their household sliall 
serve the Lord God. What right have our Christian 
parents to have children in their homes who themselves 
are not Christians? If, therefore, we are ever to convert 
the world to Christ, there is only one way to do it, and that 
is for parents to be Christians, to bring their children to 



708 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE.. 

Christ and keep them with Christ ; then to influence other 
families to come to Cbrist and bring their children to Him, 
and let the influence go on around the Avhole world, until 
all the families shall know Jesus Christ as their only- 
Savior. This is Bible doctrine; this is Lutheran doctrine^ 
this is the truth as it is in Christ Jesus. Amen. 



EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 

How to Get Rich. 

I Cor. 1:4-9. 

1 THANK my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God 
which is given you by Jesus Christ; that in every thing ye are 
enriched by Him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge ; even as 
the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you ; so that ye come behind 
in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ: who also 
shall confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of 
our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto 
the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved in Christ: 

The Cburcli at Corinth was a mighty monument both 
of the power of Satan and the power of the Gospel. The 
church at Corinth, according to this epistle had some 
members who were no honor to that church. Paul tells 
us it Avas a fact that some were not only guilty of forni- 
cation, but even in their own families. Oh, what a shame 
and disgrace to that church to have such members. Then, 
again, there were some members who were going to law 
with each other, a thing that two Christian people never 
should do. Right is right and w^rong is wrong, and God's 
Word must settle any question between church members 
without going to law. There was another disgrace that 
was found, though, and that, as an evidence of the power 
of Satan in that church, was the fact that some people 
when they went to the Lord's Supper drank so much wine 
that they became intoxicated. Another great disgrace to 
the church of that day was that some of them publicly 

709/ 



710 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

denied the resurrection of the body. It was these evi- 
dences of the devil in the church at Corinth that moved 
the apostle Paul to pen this beautiful epistle. 

But Paul was not so narrow minded as to judge a 
whole congregation by a few bad members. It is always 
a mistake to judge a family by one bad one in the family, 
as it is a mistake to judge a city by a few bad men in 
it, or a congregation. The apostle Paul looked upon this 
church at Corinth which he had established, together with 
Silas and Timothy, in the year 54, as a noble church, a^^ 
a church that demanded much grace; consequently he 
said: "I thank my God always on your behalf, for the 
grace of God A^hich is givien you by Jesus Christ; that 
in everything ye are enriched by Him, in all utterance, 
and in all knowledge." 

As a congregation the one at Corinth was not rich in 
this world's goods. He refers to that in another chapter 
when he says there that the church of God in this world is 
not noted for its wealth, nor for its great and noble men, 
but rather for those in poverty. The church of Corinth 
itself was not rich, but Corinth was a very rich city. It was 
one of the most noted cities of the Orient; it was one of 
those cities that stood for learning and for the highest 
wisdom of the then known world. That congregation .was 
rich in doctrine, rich in the Word of God, rich in conse- 
crated men and women, who gave their lives for their 
Master. The question arises this morning 

HOW SHALL WE GET RICH? 

And the answer is found in this text of mine: 



I. Get your salvation right away. 
I. Enjoy your salvation every day. 



II. 

I. We all Avant to get rich, but Oh, what a narrow 
view of life it is simply to think of this world's posses- 
sions. I say to you : Get your salvation riglit away. "I 
thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of 
God Avhich is given you by Jesus Christ." 

How did that church at Corinth get the grace of 



EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 711 

God? They got the grace of God through the preaching 
of the Word by tliree men — Paul, Silas and Timothy; 
and hearing this Word they heard of tlie grace of God, 
accepted Jesus Christ, became rich in all things through 
Him; they did not put this matter off from time to time. 
The AYorld, my friends, can never buy your salvation. If 
you had the whole world to-day as yours, you could not 
buy the forgiveness of a single sin. It was that curse in 
the church of God in the days of the Reformation that 
made Luther arise and fight. Those men were not only 
selling forgiveness of the sins of the past, but even for 
money selling the forgiveness of the sins they should com- 
mit in the future, giving them a certificate, for money, 
that they might go on and sin all they pleased, and finally 
be saved. That wasn't Bible doctrine; it wasn't true, 
and consequently Dr. Luther arose in the power of God 
and held up the pure Gospel, that man is saved by grace, 
by faith alone in Jesus Christ. The world cannot buy 
salvation. In those days there was a great cliurch to be 
built, called St. Peter's, and no money on hands to build 
it; and therefore the devil put it into the hearts of those 
people at Rome, that if they could just make the people 
believe that they could buy forgiveness of sins, there 
would be no want of money, nor was there. It was the 
money that the people gave out in Europe for the forgive- 
ness of their sins that built that large St. Peter's cathed- 
ral at Rome, and that church stands there to-day, a monu- 
ment of the folly of men obeying Satan rather than God. 
The Lord said ^'Seek ye first the kingdom of God and 
His righteousness, and all these things shall be added 
unto you." Christ knew what true wealth meant. He 
knew what you need to be rich. You need to be a saved 
man; you need to be a saved woman; you need your dear 
children saved; that is what you need, and you need it 
right away. A man has no right to put off one hour his 
soul's salvation. When the soul itself is worth more than 
all the world, how can a man afford for sixty minutes to 
run the risk of that soul being lost? If you knew that 
tomorrow forenoon by a little negligence you might lose 
your home, for nothing in the world would you fail to 



712 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE, 

be on hands to secure that home of yours; and yet your 
soul may be lost this evening; it may be that you are an 
unbaptized man, that you have never put your full trust 
in the Lord Jesus Christ, tliat the curse of God is resting 
upon you. How shall we get rich? Get rich right away 
by getting your salvation; and remember, as I said a 
moment ago, the world cannot purchase it for you. Only 
Jesus Christ can save souls. "I thank my God always on 
your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by 
Jesus Christ.'^ 

And, again, Jesus Clirist crucified is our Savior. Not 
far along in this letter Paul writes these memorable 
words: "And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not 
with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto 
you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know 
anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him cru- 
cified." Kemember, my friends, that salvation is not only 
in Christ, but it is in Christ on the cross; it is in Jesus 
Christ the God-man, able to pay the debt of the world 
because He is God; paying the debt of the world be- 
cause He is man ; paying for your sins and for mine, be- 
cause He is suffering, finishing our redemption He fin- 
ished His life on the cross, and gave it up tliat you and 
I might live. My friends, the only hope of ever getting 
rich is to get the crucified Lord as your Savior, and the 
only way to get Him as your Savior is to get Him wholly 
and solely by grace. "By grace are ye saved." 

We are all natural Pharisees. We all imagine that 
in some way or other we must do something to earn our 
salvation, and yet it isn't true. Salvation through Christ 
must come alone as an object of mercy, and you and I 
can do nothing but simply cast ourselves down at the 
Savior's feet and say. Here I am, 

"In my hands no price I bring. 
Simply to Thy cross I cling." 

"But drops of grief can ne'er repay 

The debt of love I owe; 
Here Lord, I give myself away. 
^Tis all that I can do." 



EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 713 

And then comes the merciful Savior and says: "The 
Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was 
lost," and He picks us up, and like the good Shepherd, 
presses us to His bosom of love, carries us home to the 
Father and says. Forgive this dear sheep, this poor, lost 
sheep, for the Shepherd's sake. Yes, this dear sheep was 
lost ; I found it. It deserved death ; I died for it. It could 
not help itself ; I lifted it up, bore it on My shoulders, and 
bring it home ; Father, receive this child for My sake." 

Such, my friends, is salvation; get it right away; 
and the covenant is this: He that believeth and is bap- 
tized shall be saved. These are the words of the Lord our 
Savior and He cannot lie. Oh, dear friends, get rich, and 
have salvation right away. 

II. Then, if you want to get rich, enjoy your sal- 
vation every day, by sowing more every day, growing 
more every day, and reaping well on the last great day. 

"That in everything ye are enriched by Him, in all 
utterance, and in all knowledge; even as the testimony 
of Christ was confirmed in you; so that ye come behind 
in no gift." What a Avonderful statement. That in every- 
thing ye are enriched by Him, by Jesus Christ. I do not 
think that Paul was thinking at all about earthly posses- 
sions, but even if he was, it is true. Do you realize this 
evening, my dear hearers, that you haven't got one foot 
of ground that you did not get through Christ? Do you 
realize that when God made the heavens and the earth, 
He made them with His Word? And do you realize that 
the Word that made the worlds is the same Word of which 
John says it became flesh and dwelt among us? Do you 
realize that the Maker of heaven and earth is the Incar- 
nate Savior? And therefore you have not got a thing in 
this world that you did not get of Jesus Christ your 
Savior. But, as I said a moment ago, I do not believe 
that Paul had in mind earthly possessions ; he was speak- 
ing about the salvation of this church, and that they were 
enriched in Him in all these things. "In all utterance." 
It is always difficult to translate any language into an- 
other. The word here translated "utterance" in the Eng- 
lish, is called "doctrine" in the German Bible; there are 



714 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

other translations which make it "speech'' or "preaching 
of the Gospel." The word "logos" in Greek may mean 
the Word itself; it may mean the doctrine of Christ; it 
may mean the preaching of the prophets and of the 
apostles and of the servant of God. No difference which 
translation we take, it is true that a man should every 
day of his life sow more of the Word of God. It is not 
enough simply to be a saved man ; we should also sow the 
Word of God every day. We should try more and more 
to send the Word of God out among the heathen; we 
should every day try to sow it down deep into our own 
minds; we should every day teach it and preach it to our 
families and to our fellowmen. Since we shall all reap 
what we sow, it is surely necessary that we sow good 
seed, and where is there any better seed than the Word 
of God? 

How few people there are who really enjoy their sal- 
vation. We have so many who look upon the churcli of 
God as a kind of a place to go to once in a while, and 
when they do go, they think they have rendered God a 
most wonderful service, instead of feeling that this is the 
place where God comes to serve us; instead of feeling 
that this is the place Avhere we can meet with God's chil- 
dren and sing praises to His holy name and enjoy the 
blessing of being together as men and women and chil- 
dren of the great family of God. In a colored assembly 
in the South not many years ago, a man said to tlie lead- 
ing man among them : "How does it come that you peo- 
ple assemble here and worship God? Why do you not 
worship Him in your little huts? Why do you come to- 
gether as you do?" Now this colored man was not an 
able expounder of his own thoughts, but he had a way 
of illustrating what he meant, and so he took a stick and 
began to scratch around in the coals of fire until he had 
every coal separated from the other, and soon they no- 
ticed that the fire was out and every coal was black. 
"Now," said he to this man who was finding fault with 
him for meeting with God's children, "if I had kept those 
coals together they would have burned ; there would have 
been a brifi^ht flame there and we would be warm our- 



EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 715 

selves, but pulling them apart they are black and the 
fire is out; and just so it is in this world," said he, "if 
every man were to be a Christian in his own home 
and never associate with the Christian congregation, he 
would soon become a black coal, no fire left in him, and 
the consequence is he would go back to heathendom.'^ And 
that is why tliere are so many people in the present day 
who tell us that one day they went to Sunday School; 
one day they were good Christian church members; but 
what are they to-day? Heathen in a Christian land. Black 
coals. - We cannot touch them without getting our fingers 
dirty. They are not living in the flame of God's eternal 
kingdom. "Not forsaking the assembling of yourselves 
together as the manner of some is," is the Word of God. 
I would therefore say, enjoy your salvation. Sow every 
day. 

I would also say. Grow every day. Let us not al- 
ways be little babes in Christ. The apostle Paul tells us 
that he gives to the babes milk, and to the growing men 
meat. How many people there are, just as soon as tliey 
are catechized and confirmed, seem to think now they 
have got all they ever need. Oh, dear friends, that is 
only food for the babes. The Christian ought to remem- 
ber that God's Word is a mighty deep and that lie never 
can fathom it, and if you do once learn to enjoy the 
growth in God's grace, then, m^^ friends, there will be an 
enjoyment in your whole life that you never possessed be- 
fore. It is a noble thing to be worth while having some- 
body thank God that you are living. "I thank my God 
always on your behalf," said Paul of the Corinthian 
church. It is a good thing for you and me so to grow 
that somebody in the world is blessed because of our 
growth. It is a good thing for us every day to learn some- 
thing new of Him who knoweth all things. Surely, my 
friends, we do know that the world is full of lies; we do 
know that there are teachers who are not safe. Get 
knowledge from Him who knoweth all things. Get knowl- 
edge of God. And when you get knowledge today, it only 
enables you to get more knowledge tomorrow. I could 
have the testimony of every Sunday School teacher in 



716 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

this church, that he is learning more of God's Word at 
every succeeding teachers' meeting. Why? Because all 
that he has learned in the past is only enabling him to 
learn more the next time. How easy it is for you to do 
to-day what one time you could not do at all. What has 
enabled you to do this? Only constant, diligent labor. 
I am satisfied there is not a young man in the world that 
can come out of the seminary and step into this church 
and do the Avork that is to be done here; it would simply 
be impossible; it is only the strong man physically who 
has been trained for years to do much and do it easily, 
that could ever do the Avork that is to be done here. And 
so, my friends, it is in the study of God's Word. Let us 
not be satisfied with the Christianity that has simply 
kept what it had twenty jeavs ago, yes, possibly even 
longer than that, and does not know anything more to- 
day. How many of you parents would like to be tested 
right now in reciting the ten commandments? Do you 
t;now them? How many of you would be willing to stand 
a public examination right now in Luther's catechism? 
Do you know what you once knew, or have you forgotten 
all about it; or are you to be pitied because you never 
did know these things? And who wants to stop with a 
few^ little lessons out of God's great Book? When I 
can assure you that the history of the United States can 
be found in half of one of the chapters of Kevelation; 
when I can assure you that the history of the four uni- 
versal kingdoms of the world are contained in two chap- 
ters of Daniel; who is then going to say, I can fathom 
that great book in a year and a half or two years? 

Enjoy your Christianity by sowing every day and 
growing, until it can be said of you as it was said of the 
church at Corinth, that in everything ye are enriched by 
Him, in all utterance and in all knowledge. Spurgeon 
used to say : "When I was a young man my mind was all 
confusion, but when I was converted to God, I put Christ 
in the center of my brain and wrapped all knowledge 
around Him." That is what made Spurgeon such a 
powerful preacher. Oh, that we would all this morn- 
ing let the Sun of Bighteousness shine in on our brain, 



EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 717 

and search and learn, and wrap around Christ all our 
knowledge. That is why a college that has no religion 
in it, never makes a scholar. You cannot show me a single 
college in the world that does not teach religion that 
ever made a man of God or a powerful man in this world. 
The great wise man wisely said : The fear of God is the 
beginning of all wisdom. You might send a man through 
all the secular schools of the world, and through all the 
secular colleges of the world, if that man has never been 
in a Sunday School or in a church, or never had any re- 
ligious instruction, that man with all his diplomas has 
never even made a beginning of wisdom. Is that man 
wise that doesn't even know why we live? Is that man 
wise that is searching knowledge and is losing his soul? 
Is that man wise that does not know the first great truth, 
why we live and where we are to spend eternity? 

Enjoy your salvation, not only by sowing every day, 
and growing every day, but by reaping well on that last 
great day. "So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting 
for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ ; who shall also 
confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the 
day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful by whom 
ye were called unto the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ 
our Lord." Oh, says Paul, I cannot be with ypu any 
longer up at Corinth, but I ask you as a church to sow 
every day and grow every day, and reap well on that last 
great day by being blameless. Isn't that a beautiful aim 
in life, to be blameless on that last great day? Isn't that 
worth living for? You and I are all guilty of weaknesses 
these days, on all sides; but our aim should be to live 
ever}^ day nearer and nearer to Jesus ; our aim should be 
every day to get homesick for the coming of Christ. Now 
Jesus is walking with us through His promise, as He 
walked with those two young men from Jerusalem to 
Emmaus when their hearts were burning because of His 
presence. Now Jesus abides with us, and breaks bread 
with us, and we welcome Him, but we reach for His hand 
and cannot touch it. The difference between a true Chris- 
tian and one that is none, is known by his desire for that 



718 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

last great day. The man who is no child of God shivers 
when he mentions death; he trembles when he speaks of 
the Judgment. The true child of God, like John of old 
on the Isle of Patmos, looks heavenward and cries, "Lord, 
come quickly. Come quickl3^'^ The day of the Lord is 
coming for you and for me, on that day when my soul 
takes its departure; for me it is the day of reaping, for 
there will be no change in my soul from that day until 
the last great day; but the day of the Lord, I take it to 
be that last great day when the harvest Avill come, and let 
us so live that on that day we will reap well. 

We want to get rich. When do we know whether the 
farmer is prospering? Not so much in tlie fall when he 
turns up the soil and sows his wheat; not so much on the 
clear winter day when we see tlie field covered with green 
wheat; not so much in the spring when the snow melts 
away and we see the green carpet still covering the earth ; 
we are not quite sure when we see the tall wheat waving 
in the wind in the months of May and June; we are not 
quite sure when he reaps the wheat and hauls it into the 
barn; we never know exactly what his harvest is until 
the threshing machine has done its work and pulled away 
from the barn; then the farmer stands up and looks at 
the record, and says, I have soAvn, and I have reaped, 
and I have threshed, and now this* is the harvest; and 
it is that, that decides as to how he prospered. And so 
if you want to get rich, don't show me your house, and 
your barn, and your mines, and your fields, and your 
bank accounts. Rich people in this world's goods are like 
the big oaks that grow very large but have nothing on 
them but a few little acorns. The man that is really rich 
is the man that can say right now. My soul is saved and 
I enjoy my Christianity; I am going to try to be honest 
and upright and grow in grace and strength and live for 
the glory of my Father in heaven, and for the welfare of 
my friends and my foes, alwaj^s asking the guidance of 
the Holy Spirit, sowing every day, and realizing that I 
hope to reap more, and on that last great day when I 
stand before my Master, I will not trust in my righteous- 
ness, but alone in His great mercy and forgiveness; and; 



EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 719 

when I breathe my last breath my last sin is committed 
and the last one forgiven, and on that morning of the 
resurrection I want to stand before Him with His per- 
fection, blameless; then I Avill be rich. Oh, the riches of 
the blameless man on the Judgment day, standing before 
his God! This is wealth. 

If I were to tell you in a few words what you need 
to-day above everything else, I would say that you need 
six hearts in one; I would say that you need three hearts 
out of the Old Testament, and three hearts out of the 
New, all in your own one heart. What do I mean? 

I mean that first of all you need the heart of a Jacob, 
who, wrestled that night with the angel of God, and when 
in the morning he was commanded to desist, he said. 
Lord, I will not let Thee go except Thou bless me; that 
is the heart that you need. Not to let go of God in His 
mercy until He blesses you. 

Then you need the heart of a Job. Wealthy as he 
was in the possession of lands, with a large family, with 
all the kinds of animals that made him the most wealthy 
man and the most noted man of the East, he is tried by 
Satan, with God's permission. The animals are stolen 
and burned; the house topples over and the family is 
killed, and all that he has is swept away from him in a 
single day; then he shaves his head and kneels down in 
the dust and says : ^'Naked came I out of my mother's 
womb, and naked shall I return thither; the Lord gave 
and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of 
the Lord." And when Job said that, he was richer by 
far than he was when he had all his possessions. That 
is the heart that you need, and that is the heart that I 
need. 

And then we all need the Old Testament heart found 
in the 73rd Psalm, when Asaph looked up and said: 
^^Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none 
upon earth that I desire beside Thee. My flesh and my 
heart faileth : but God is the strength of my heart, and 
my portion forever." That is the heart that you need, 
that finds nothing in all the universe so precious to you 
a« vour God. 



720 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

Then you need three hearts that are found in the 
New Testament also. Christ had been up on the moun- 
tain of Transfiguration, with James, and Peter, and John, 
and when He came down to the rest of the disciples there 
was a great multitude following Him, and among them 
was one man Avho came and said, I have a son who is a 
deaf mute and possessed of the devil, and this Satan 
within him throws him down on the earth and makes the 
foam come out of his mouth and wallows him in the diist; 
I have been to your disciples and they cannot help him, 
and I ask Thee, O Savior of the world, to help this boy 
of mine. Then the Savior looked at him and said. Why, 
this poor boy! How long has he been in this awful con- 
dition? Ever since he was born, said the father. What 
I want to know, said the father, is this : Is there any help 
for this my boy? Yes, said the Savior, there is, if you 
can believe; to !)im who believeth all things are possible. 
And there vras a new light came to that father's heart. 
Is it possible that this, my boy, possessed of the devil, 
foaming and groaning in the dust of the earth, this boy 
whom Satan has thrown into the water and I have pulled 
him out, this boy whom Satan has thrown into the fire 
and I have snatched him from the fiames, this boy who 
has been our care from infancy for myself and my wife, 
is there any hope for him? And with tears rolling down 
his face he said to Christ, I believe : help Thou mine un- 
belief ! And Jesus commanded the demons to leave him,, 
and there lay the boy as if dead ; and Jesus took him by 
the hand and lifted him up and gave him back to his 
father and said. This can only be done by fasting and 
prayer. And the father's heart that said. Help mine un- 
belief, is the heart that you and I need this morning. 

Then you remember the story of the Pharisee who 
thanked God that he was so much better than his fellow- 
men, and how he thanked God that he was so much better 
than that poor publican; and then you remember how 
that poor publican, knowing that there was no hope for 
him except in the mercy of Christ, did not look up, but 
simply looked down, and he knew where all the trouble 
was; it was right in his own breast, and he struck upon 



EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 721 

his own heart : Here, my God, is the trouble, right here ; 
God be merciful to me a sinner! That is the heart that 
^ye need this morning, the publican's heart. 

And there is one more thing that I believe we need. 
When Christ as a little child was taken into the temple, 
there was an aged woman and an aged man there w^ho 
had been waiting to see the Savior; and Simeon of old 
took the little child in his arms and lifted his voice of 
thanks to heaven and said : "Lord, now lettest Thou Thy 
servant depart in peace, according to Thy Word; for 
mine eyes have seen Thy salvation." Oh, how rich Simeon 
was that morning I May God give us these six hearts this 
evening in one, that we may be rich to-day and rich for- 
ever. Amen. 

PRAYER. 

O Father in heaven, Thou who didst send Paul and Silas and 
Timothy to that great city of Corinth, determined to preach nothing, 
but Christ and Him crucified, and by the preaching of those men didst 
establish Thy Church, and didst thereby give us this great epistle written 
by Paul to show us how we can be rich in all things through Christ, 
we pray Thy rich blessing to rest upon the message of the evening. 
Give Thy rich blessing to every father and to every mother in this 
house. We ask a special blessing upon these hoary heads. It will 
not be long, O God, until some who are sitting in this house this even- 
ing will know of the things they are asked to believe now. It will not 
be long, O God, until some of us younger people will go home before 
the aged ones, to stand in Thy presence and see Thee face to face. Lord, 
help us to sow good seed; help us to grow a great harvest; help us 
to reap well on our last day, and may the harvester, by the 
mercy of Christ, be found blameless. We ask all these favors in the 
name of Jesus, who taught us to pray: 

Our Father who art in heaven ; H'allowed be Thy name ; Thy 
kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven; Give 
us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation; 
But deliver us from evil ; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



46 



NINETEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 

Where Are We? 

Eph. 4:22-28. 

€HAT ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, 
which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be re- 
newed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new 
man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. 
Wherefore, putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neigh- 
bor; for we are members one of another. Be ye angry and sin not: 
let not the sun go down upon your wrath : neither give place to the 
devil. Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labor, work- 
ing with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give 
to him that needeth. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved in Christ: 

When we are traveling over this wide country of ours 
in a railroad train, it is nothing uncommon to hear the 
passengers say, Where are we? When we go into the 
hospitals and find lying there a man who has been severely 
wounded in some wreck, and he has come to, about the 
first thing he does is to say. Where are we? When we 
stand by the bedside of the dying and they are permitted 
by God's grace to take as it were a look behind the veil, 
and then come back for a moment and open their eyes, 
they frequently say. Where are we? When the Judgment 
shall have passed, and those who have entered heaven 
have seen the glory on high, and those who have rejected 
their Savior shall be lost forever, it seems to me there 
will be a groan pass through the very corridors of hell, 
Where are we? As I read this chapter from which my 
text is taken, I notice that the path from darkness to 

722 



NINETEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 723 

light, from eternal death to eternal life, is not a short 
one. Here is a wonderful journey to take spiritually, and 
all along this path, when I read of the progress that 
should be made by Christians, I cannot help but ask the 
question, Where am I? Where are we? May the Holy 
Spirit help us to answer this question this evening, and 
may we be found with Jesus our Savior. 

WHERE ARE WE? 

There are three places where we may be : 

I. The state of total darkness. 
II. The state of dangerous deception. 
III. The state of eternal day. 

I. The state of total darkness. "That ye put off 
concerning the former conversation the old man." These 
two words, "former conversation," refer to the heathen 
life, the former walk, and it is here beautifully described 
in the following words : "This I say therefore, and testify 
in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles 
walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understand- 
ing darkened, being alienated from the life of God through 
the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness 
of their heart : who, being past feeling, have given them- 
selves over to lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with 
gTeedine^s." No human pen has ever crowded more into 
a few words than Paul did in these three verses. He 
shows the state of the heathen in that awful state of 
darkness; he shows how their minds were in the dark, 
and their hearts, and their lascivious work. 

1. He calls attention to their minds being in the 
dark. "This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that 
ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the 
vanity of their mind." Did you ever notice how vain 
heathen are? Even in those places where they do not 
know who God is and do not know what a Bible is, and 
do not know what civilization is, you will find the proudest 
people in the world. I remember passing through Mexico 
and Arizona a fev^' years ago, and was surprised to find 



724 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

those filthy heathen down there with their jewelry hang- 
ing around their necks, ears, and even to their noses. Oh, 
what vanity of mind! And that is the condition a man 
is in when he gets away from God and gets away from 
the true religion of Jesus Christ, the mind is all dark. 

2. And when the mind is dark, the heart is dark 
with it. "Having the understanding darkened, being 
alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that 
is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, who, 
being past feeling, have given themselves over unto 
lasciviousness.'' Did you ever hear the darkened heart 
described more correctly than Paul describes it in these 
words, "alienated from the life of God?" Oh, the heart 
that has never had the Son of Kighteousness shine in it, 
how black it is ! So black that it is filled with ignorance, 
so dark that it becomes blind, so hard that it loses its 
feeling. The other evening when we heard that great 
lecture on the Turk I suppose some of you thought. How 
is it possible that a man could ever get so far in mean- 
ness as to starve a little babe to death? I suppose some 
of you wondered how it was possible that there could be 
a whole nation on this civilized globe where women and 
their children are hounded to death by a man who with 
one word and one turn of his hand could save their lives 
and make them a civilized nation. It is not so hard to 
understand when we remember the awful darkness of 
heathendom. It is not so hard to understand when we 
remember that in God we live, and move, and have our 
being, and just as soon as we get away from God, who is 
light, we plunge into darkness, and where there is dark- 
ness there is hardness of heart, and at last the heart gets 
so hard that the feelings vanish. When you uttered your 
first curse word the chills went up your back; when you 
did your first damnable deed you shuddered, but you kept 
on doing the same mean, dirty thing, until to-day you can 
do it with pleasure. You have got the hardened heart, 
the blackness of the darkness of the heathen life. 

3. There is not only a state of heart when the feel- 
ing has passed away, but there is the darkness that leads 



NINETEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 725 

the man to plunge greedily into all the meanness he can 
think of. "Who being past feeling have given themselves 
over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness Avith 
greediness.'* — "given themselves over unto lascivious- 
ness." There is in every man a natural desire to do 
wrong. The spiritual desire is to do right. There is a 
conflict between the light and the darkness. There is a 
conflict between the spiritual gift of God and the dark- 
ness that comes from Satan. When a man begins to go 
Avrong, he has a ba^ttle; when he continues to go wrong 
he finally gets to that point where he loses self respect; 
having lost his self respect, he now says, Satan, you can 
liave it your own Avay ; instead of trying to be clean, I am 
going to try to be unclean ; instead of trying to be unclean 
here and there, I will gather together all the uncleanness 
I can find, and will work in it with greediness. "Who 
being past feeling have given themselves over unto lascivi- 
ousness to work all uncleanness with greediness.'' If 
jou can imagine a man so thoroughly hardened, so dark 
that he wishes he had all the meanness and ungodliness 
in the world in a bunch, that he could work in it and just 
plunge into it greedily, as if he did not have time to do 
it all, there you have the picture of the awful darkness 
of the ungodly who are away from Christ. Where are we? 
Oh, I hope there are none in this house this evening in 
this state of blackness and darkness. 

II. There is another state, and there is where I fear 
a great many of us will find ourselves, and that is the 
state of dangerous deception. The apostle calls attention 
here to deceitful lusts. Satan himself is a deceiver from 
the beginning, and we are told here that we should give 
no place to Satan. "Neither give place to the devil." 
The great trouble with too many Christians is that they 
want to be Christians, but they would like to be Chris- 
tians and have the devil right with them. In other words, 
they give a chair to the devil and say. Make yourself at 
h^ome, so if I want you I have got you handy. That is 
about the spirit of some Christians, and Satan has the 
wonderful gift of making us believe he is an angel of 
light; he has the wonderful gift of making us believe we 



726 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

are all right when we are all wrong. What are these de- 
ceptions? 

We sometimes think we are talking when the devil is 
talking for us. "Wherefore putting away lying, speak 
every man truth with his neighbor; for we are members 
one of another.'' — "put away lying." There are a great 
many people who think they can tell a lie and it is their 
lie. Yes, it is their lie spoken by the devil "in their 
tongues ; they made a place for the devil — here is my 
tongue, come and make your home in it and lie. All we 
need to do is to stop and think what God is. God is 
truth. In Him we live, and move, and have our being. 
If a man lives, and moves, and has his being in God, he 
cannot by God's power tell a lie, or by that very act he 
would put God out of his tongue. Here is Satan, a de- 
ceiver from the beginning, a liar from the beginning. 
Satan says. Come on, let me get into your tongue and I 
will tell a lie; I will slander my neighbor; I will tell 
this and that about people whether it is true or not ; and, 
my dear friends, I believe as truly as I stand here this 
evening, that in God's sight a liar is one of the worst 
men on earth. The man that will just simply say, 
Here, devil, take my tongue and lampoon the best man 
on earth; slander whom you will and say all manner of 
things that are not true — may God have mercy on the 
slanderer. May God have mercy on the good old gossip 
that sits around and says, I am holy, and now I think 
may be this isn't just right, and I think may be that isn't 
just right; and then the other old fool of a gossip says, 
The thing is just as the lady told me, and lies, and writes 
it down, ashamed to put her name to it, and publishes the 
ungodly lie to the world ; if the devil is not in that tongue 
he never was anywhere. Beware! Where are you this 
evening? Where am I this evening? If I were to come 
to your house and find you lying on your bed with an 
ugly cancer on your tongue, I would be filled with sym- 
pathy for you ; I would pray God, if possible to save you; 
I would pray God to deliver you from that awful cancer; 
but I would rather to-day, God being my witness, have 
my mouth full of cancer than to be a slandering liar, than 



NINETEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 727 

to tell the untruth, for the dewl is in the tongue of the 
liar, do not forget that. "Wherefore putting away lying, 
speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are mem- 
hers one of another." 

There is not only a state of dangerous deception in 
lying, but there is also this: A man may think he is 
sleeping all alone when he is sleeping with the devil. 
Wouldn't that be a terrible thing if tonight you go to 
your bedroom and you were to find Satan there by the 
side of your bed, and he would say, Now I would like to 
sleep with you tonight; you would say, Never! never! 
Let me out of this room. I will never sleep with the 
devil. And yet there are hundreds of professed Chris- 
tians, and some come to communion, who sleep with him 
every night. How is that? Well, you have in the first 
place a bad temper, and you virtually say. Now, devil, 
you come and enter this temper of mine; and then you 
pick a quarrel with your neighbor across the street; then 
you stop talking to that neighbor and you keep up that 
hatred; you are trying to find something all the time 
that you do not like, trying to say something bad about 
this one and about that one; half the time you are run- 
ning around trying to let your temper make enemies; 
and then you go to bed that night and you lie down, and 
if you don't sleep with the devil, nobody ever did — sleep- 
ing with him every night and you think you are a Chris- 
tian ; you think you are a child of God ; you think if you 
were to die this night you would go right to heaven ; and 
if you can go to heaven hating any man on earth, not 
speaking to your next door neighbor, having an ill-will 
toward your fellowmen, I want to say that I never want 
to go to heaven, because the Bible that I study and the 
heaven that I know about, will never have an unforgiven 
sin in it, and for that reason God taught us to pray daily, 
"Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who tres- 
pass against us;" and if you do not forgive every man 
on earth, you are asking God in that prayer to treat you 
as you treat the one whom you will not forgive. You 
are praying, God don't forgive me; I want to go to hell 
and sleep with the devil tonight. 



728 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

Why do I talk about sleeping with him? Because 
the Bible tells us plainly: "Be ye angry, and sin not; 
let not the sun go down upon your wrath. ^' In the same 
chapter Paul writes : "Let all bitterness and wrath, and 
anger, and clamour, and evil speaking be put away from 
you, with all malice." I read the other day^f a man who 
was so constantly getting angry, and his anger was so 
uncontrollable, that he made up his mind that in the 
neighborhood where he lived it was impossible to ever 
control that anger. He thought the reason he got so angry 
was because his neighbors were all wrong, and so he made 
up his mind he would move into a large woods where he 
could be al] alone and would never have any trouble with 
his temper any more. The first day he was cutting down 
a tree, and he got so warm and thirsty ; he picked up his 
jug, walked to the spring and set it under the water; 
when it was nearly full the jug rolled over; he sat it up 
again, and again it rolled over; the third time he threw 
it against the rock and it flew to pieces. Then he began 
to think where he was, and picked up the jug handle and 
said : Where are my enemies this morning? There was 
no neighbor around. That man had to go to the woods 
to find out that the old devil was in him instead of in 
his neighbors; that the devil was in his own temper in- 
stead of somewhere else. 

When John the Patriarch of Constantinople, a good 
Christian man, had a quarrel one day with a good Chris- 
tian man, he went home very much dissatisfied, and when 
he looked out over the far west and saw the sun going 
down, he remembered what Paul wrote in the fourth 
chapter of Ephesians : Let not the sun go down upon your 
wrath; and the man that had the quarrel with him re- 
membered the same thing; and so John the Patriarch 
started at once to see his neighbor and said. My neighbor, 
the sun is going down. That was all that was necessary. 
The sun was going down. They both had been instructed 
in God's Word, and that is the only help and the only sal- 
vation of the Avorld to-day. Take the little children and 
put God's Word into their minds, and then when they go 
wrong the Holy Spirit will lead them right again. So 



NINETEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 729 

they both started from home at the same time, and they 
met half way, and they shook hands and said, Let us 
forgive each other and go home and sleep as God's chil- 
dren. They would not go to bed hating each other. It 
is just as plain as God's truth this evening, you cannot 
go to bed tonight with an ill-will toward any man on 
earth, without sleeping with the devil. There is a state 
of dangerous deception. 

Not only do we find this state of dangerous deception 
in this, that Satan sometimes may be in our tongues and 
tempers, but we also find that he can get right into our 
pocketbooks. '^Let him that stole steal no more; but 
rather let him labor, Avorking with his hands the thing 
which is good, that he may have to give to him that 
needeth."' If there is anything mean in all this world it 
is to go to a man who one time possibly has stolen, and 
say. You are a thief; or to go to a man who one time 
told a lie and say. Now you are a liar ; or to the man who 
one time did this or that and say. You are guilty of it 
now. If every man on earth were to be called a drunkard 
who one time got drunk, how many sober men would we 
have? If every man were considered a thief and a thug 
who one day did a dishonest thing, how manv honest men 
would we have? I am not upholding any crime, but I 
do say this, when you come to compare man with man, 
and Avoman with woman, when you compare them as 
under the eyes of God, you will find that in the general 
sweejj of all their lives, there isn't very much difference, 
and the thing for us to do when a man has done wrong 
in the past and wants to do what is right now, is to stretch 
out the hand of love and say, I respect you, and love you 
for trying to do right now; if you stole, don't steal any 
more; if you ever did any wrong in the past, by the help 
of God make up your mind this day to do right. And 
when yon have that kind of a heart in yourself, then you 
have something approaching very close to the truest 
Christianity. 

But how is it with Satan? Satan comes to a man and 
says. Look here; I would like to occupy your pocketbook 



730 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

a little while. And when you let him in, he has got just 
two ways of dealing with that pocketbook. 

To the owner of one pocketbook he says: You have 
worked hard all your life; you have worked hard all 
day ; you are supporting your family ; they are eating off 
of you ; the thing for you to do is' to walk into this saloon 
and take a drink and cool off; you have earned it. That 
one drink makes you feel better ; take another ; you have 
earned this money. When he has taken two, Satan says : 
That will do for the present, but you have a good distance 
to go; take another one; then he takes the third; and 
by t]iat time his good neighbor comes in and Satan says : 
Here, you are brothers; treat him; give him a glass; 
you can afford it; it is your money. And the drunken 
man reaches out and pays for it all. Then in comes 
another thirst}^ man, and that is the way they go on, and 
Satan through that one pocketbook begins to empty all 
the pocketbooks in that saloon; and the first thing the 
man knows he goes home with his little pocketbook so 
thin it looks as though an elephant had stepped on it; 
nothing in it; but if he could open it and look, he would 
find that Satan entered in that day and took out of that 
pocketbook all he possibly could to rob that man and his 
family and to rob the church of God. 

Sometimes Satan finds out he has hold of an old 
hard-hearted sinner who is a miser,, and says. Can I get 
into your pocketbook? Yes, get into it. I want to tell 
you you have worked hard for all you have, and what you 
have is yours ; I wouldn't join the church, because if you 
do they will want money for missions, and for this and 
for that, and the best thing you can do is to stay at home 
and let me stay in this pocketbook and we will keep it 
tight; the only time we will open it is when you can get 
more money. And after a while this man gets pretty 
hungry and he would like to have something good to eat. 
Satan says. Look here, after a while you are going to get 
old and cannot work; let me have this nickle and this 
dime; you will get hungry, but you will need it when you 
get old. He says, that is right, and doesn't eat enough. 
Some time the man looks at his pocketbook and says, I 



NINETEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 731 

would like to get myself a suit of clothes to-daj; but 
8atan says, Don't be proud ; your old suit is good enough ; 
you just keep Avhat you have here; wear your old cloth- 
ing; you don't need suspenders, take a rope and tie it 
around you; if your wife wants a dollar or two, don't 
give it to her ; let her go and work ; if the children want 
another new dress, don't get them any, they will get too 
proud; we will save; you are going to get old, and 
after a, while I will open your pocketbook. Well, time 
passes on and the poor man goes along earning more 
money after that, buys farm after farm and block after 
block, and he swells his bank accoun.t larger and larger; 
the poor man gets hungrier and hungrier; his clothes get 
shabbier and shabbier, the poorest man on God's earth, 
and the devil made him poor. Pity the old miser. Pity 
the man that has given his pocketbook over to the devil, 
either to say, Take it all out, or else to say. Keep it all in. 
''Let him that stole steal no more; but rather let him 
labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, 
that he may have to give to him that needeth." 

If there is anything in the world my friends we ought 
to do, it is to work hard for every dollar that we get. 
And when we do work hard we ought to see that that 
dollar is rightly used, and to use it rightly, we ought to 
expend it for the good of God's kingdom and for the good 
of humanity. I said a Avhile ago Satan said to that man. 
Save all that you can until you are old; but soon that 
man starves to death, and he is put down into the ground 
and the dirt shoveled over him, and it actually sounds 
as if the ver}^ ground Avere falling on a hard stone, for 
his heart Avas harder than any rock. And then the devil 
gets all the money; for the boys and girls quarrel over 
it, get into a laAv suit, and the laAA^yers get it, and what 
becomes of it you all know. BcAvare of Satan in the 
pocketbook. If you find yourself getting so liberal that 
you cannot save anything, open your pocketbook and say, 
Satan get out of here; if you find yourself getting so 
niggardly and miserly that you are not Avilling to give up 
anything any more, break open the pocketbook and say 



732 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

by God's help, Satan get out of here. Make no place for 
the devil, says Paul. 

III. I have now shown you in the first place a state 
that is total darkness, and in the second place a state of 
dangerous deception; now I want to show you a state 
that is eternal day. In this same chapter the Apostle 
Paul calls attention to this great truth: "And He gave 
some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evan- 
gelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfect- 
ing of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the 
edifjdng of the body of Christ; till we all come in the 
unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of 
God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature 
of the fulness of Christ." 

It seems to me the Apostle Paul has crowded more 
great facts and truths into this fourth chapter of Ephe- 
sians than you can find almost anywhere else in his writ- 
ings. "That we henceforth be no more children, tossed 
to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, 
by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby 
they lie in wait to deceive." 

Why is it that so many old people are constantly 
running from church to church and constantly wavering 
in their faith, never knowing Avhere they stand? It is 
because they did not begin right. It is because they 
never did know what they believed. It is because they 
have laid the foundation very poorly. Let us, my dear 
friends, be well instructed in God's Holy Word; let us 
learn the truths contained in the five chief parts of Dr. 
Luther's catechism thoroughly, and no power on earth 
nor in hell can change our faith. Then we are 
built upon the solid rock of God's Word, on the Eock 
Jesus. The Apostle Paul said, Don't be a child; do not 
get away back there and stay there forever, but press 
forward, coming out of total darkness with renewed mind 
and the Spirit of God in you, press forward. Press for- 
ward and fight; fight for the light that is coming, for 
there is in the distance an eternal day, so that victory 
must come for the right, and to do this he speaks of three 
things that we must do : We must put off the old man ; 



NINETEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 733 

we must put on the new man; we must put out the old 
devil. That is the only way to reach this eternal day. 

"That ye put off concerning the former conversation 
the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful 
lusts.'' This old man, I suppose you all know who he is. 
AVhen Adam and Eve were first created, holy, in the image 
((f their God there was no old man; but when Adam 
sinned and Eve fell, then there was an old sinful nature 
born in Eden, and that old sinful nature is living to-day, 
the old Adam, and this old man must be put off if we 
ever want to come into the light of eternal day. That 
is vrhat Luther meant in the explanation of the part of 
Baptism where it says : It signifies that the old Adam 
in us by daily contrition and repentance should be 
droAvned and die, and that a new man come forth who 
should walk in nev\ ness of life. This old man then let us 
put off by the help of God. 

Again, let us put on the new man. "And be ye re- 
newed in the spirit of your mind, that ye put on the new 
man, which after God is created in righteousness and true 
holiness." The question has often been asked. What was 
the image of God? You will remember that God created 
man in His own image. It is not hard to find what that 
image was if we study the New Testament. In the garden 
of Eden man lost the image of God; the Holy Spirit by 
renewing us gives us the new birth ; in giving us the new 
birth he gives us the new man; and this new man is the 
old image lost. What is that new man? I call your at- 
tention now to Ephesians 4 :24, which I have just read : 
"Put on the new man which after God is created in 
righteousness and true holiness." Then again, in Ool. 
3 :10, "And have put on the new man, which is renewed 
in knowledge after the image of Him that created him." 
Therefore the image of God consists of knowledge of holi- 
ness and of righteousness. In the garden of Eden Adam 
lost this image; through Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit 
Ave get this image back. Having this new man, you can- 
not keep tlie two men together; either the old man will 
try and crowd the new man out, or the new man will try 



734 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

to crowd the old man out. If, therefore, you wish to reach 
the light of eternal day, you must, by the help of God, 
say to the old man, Down with you and out with you; 
to the new man, knowledge, righteousness and holiness. 
Come in and make thy dwelling in my heart and in my 
soul; and in order that we may have the old man out 
and keep the new man in, we must fight the fight with 
Satan. 

Paul says : "Neither give place to the devil." When 
the Germans tell us to take a chair, they say. Take a 
place, and I often think of that when I read this verse: 
"Give Satan no place.'- Why is it so many people fall? 
Because they say, Satan you can come in just to the door; 
or, come here and take a chair; I will leave you in my 
home or in my heart ; I don^t want to make much use of 
you, but 1 don't want you to be too far away; and the 
result is he takes possession of the house. ^ The only way 
I know of being a true Christian and getting the old man 
out and getting the new man in is to forever sever your 
relations with Satan and say. No place for you. When he 
comes to us and says, I want you to lie, you have either 
got to sa}^. Devil take a chair and I will lie; or you have 
got to say. Out with you; I am going to tell the truth if 
the heavens fall. That is the only way to reach eternal 
day. 

A man in Germany Avho had three very wicked sons, 
said to a nobleman, "What will I do with my boys?" The 
nobleman said, "What is the matter with them?" He 
f^aid, "One is a thief; the other a drunkard and the third 
is a liar." "Well," said the nobleman, "I guess the best 
thing to do with those boys is to do like my neighbor did 
with an old cat. It was always eating the cheese; so he 
just took a rope and tied the cat to the cheese until it 
nearly starved to death, and it never wanted cheese again. 
Take your drunken sot and get a keg of whiskey and soak 
him in it; take the thief and pile the money all around 
him and tie him there until he sees nothing but money 
day and night until he gets tired of it. Then he began 
to think of the third. Where will we put the liar? And 
they could not find any place on God's earth to put him. 



NINETEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 735 

There wasn't a place on earth to put him that he wasn't 
simply causing trouble, and the liar everywhere is the 
most damnable creature on God's earth. When Satan 
comes to you and says, Now tell a lie ; say. Out with you ; 
my Savior is the truth; I dare not have the devil in my 
tongue; you cannot have a chair in my mouth. Fight for 
the eternal day. When he comes to you and says. Now get 
angry and allow your temper to rise, don't say. Now devil, 
take a chair; and let your temper run away with you; 
you always make a fool of yourself and you know it. Say, 
Satan, out with you ; I will let nothing disturb me ; I will 
keep calm and cool; I Avill be in earnest; I will be like 
God Himself and have a holy Avratli against wrong and 
sin, but the sun shall never go down and I sleep with 
Satan. Out with you ; no place for you. When he comes 
to you with provocations and says. Too many collections 
in the church, too many calls for help, don't give any- 
thing, say. Devil, no chair in my house; get out. When 
he comes to you and says. Let me have all you have got 
and throw it away, you don't need to support your wife 
and children, saj^. Devil no chair for you; out with you. 
And thus keep on fighting the fight for eternal day, mov- 
ing upward and forward, until by the help of God you 
shall reach the fulness of the manhood of a child of God. 

Where are we this morning? I am not preaching this 
sermon for you to point at your neighbor; I am preach- 
ing this sermon for every, true Christian, for every man 
and for every woman to lay his hand upon his own heart, 
and ask the question. Where am I? 

Where have we been? Do not forget those things. 
Do not forget the mine from which God dug you up as 
a golden jewel. Do not forget where you have been and 
what God has done for you. 

Let us not stop with the past. Let us ask ourselves 
the question right now. Where are we on this path from 
total darkness to eternal day? Are we still back in the 
darkness? Are we in the realm of childhood? Are we 
established? Are we marching onward? Are we pressing 
forvv^ard to the x>rize? Where are we? 

Where will Ave be? Oh, the flight of time! In a very 



736 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

short time another will stand here where I stand to preach 
the Gospel; in a very short time another will hold the 
chair down in your home; it is only a short time that we 
have to live, and it becomes our duty in this short time 
so to live each day as we shall expect to live on that last 
great day. What shall we be? Where shall we be? I 
have no right to expect to be very far away tomorrow 
from where I am to-day. We are either going gradually 
down to the total darkness, or we must go gradually to 
the eternal day. May God the Holy Spirit give you all 
that determination of heart and mind this evening, that 
by His help you shall forever exclude Satan from any 
place in your soul, and shall Avalk in the footprints of your 
Savior Jesus Christ. He that believeth and is baptized 
shall be saved ; but he that believeth not shall be damned. 
These are the Words of the eternal Judge. Where are we? 
Where shall we be? May God help us all as one great 
family to be at home with Him after that great day. 
Amen. 

PRAYER. 

O God, our heavenly Father, we thank Thee for the blessed priv- 
ilege of not only being saved by Thy grace, but of being called to Thy 
ministry to proclaim Thy plan of salvation to all those who hear. And 
we thank Thee that Thou hast given to man not only one ear, but ears 
to hear. We thank Thee that Thy Word is a seed, and a power that 
shall not return void. We pray Thy rich blessing to rest upon the 
message of the evening. Oh, may it bring forth a rich harvest of souls 
of all hearers. O God, hear our prayer, in the name of Jesus, who 
taught us to pray: 

Our Father who art in heaven; Rallowed be Thy name; Thy 
kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven; Give 
us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us ; And lead us not into temptation ; 
But deliver us from evil ; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



TWENTIETH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 

Five Fools. 

Eph. 5:15-21. 

8EE then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, 
redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be 
ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. 
And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the 
Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, 
singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; giving thanks 
always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our 
Lord Jesus Christ; submitting yourselves one to another in the fear 
of God. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved in Christ: 

In His sermon on the Mount, Jesus warns us not to 
call a brother a fool. We have no right to call one of 
God's children a fool; but on the other hand let us not 
forget that the world is full of fools, and this is acknowl- 
edged by the world as well as by the Word. Carlisle in 
stating the number of inhabitants of England said there 
were so many millions — mostly fools. Pope said, "Fools 
rush in where angels fear to tread." The poet Young said 
that men may live fools, but they cannot die fools. 

It is not only the teaching of the world in general 
that there are many fools, but the Word of God speaks 
about two hundred times concerning that class of people 
called fools. In our own text the Apostle Paul refers to 
them when he says: "See then that ye walk circum- 
specth^, not as fools, but as wise." This epistolary letter 
points us this evening to five fools, and may we see to it 
that we are not among their number. 

47 737 



738 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 



FIVE FOOLS. 



I. The first fool described here is the one who lives 
in the world and never sees it. "See then that ye walk 
circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise." Circumspectly 
means to be seen from all around; looked at and looking 
out. How many people there are in this world who are 
constantly living as if they never saw. They do not see 
that this world is the place for them to be saved, and that 
the world itself is to be saved. 

Is that man not a fool that comes into this world and 
has all the advantages of the Gospel light to be saved, 
and yet lives on from day to day, and some time he will 
find that he is suddenly called into eternity, and he never 
reaches the object for which he was created; he never 
accepts the Savior that died for him ; he never reads the 
Word of God, which is God's letter to him; he never ac- 
cepts the Holy Spirit and the light and the faith which 
he intended to give him ; he has come into the world and 
brought nothing with him, and has gone out and taken 
nothing with him, and he is lost forever, and he will say 
to himself in all eternity. Of all fools I am the biggest; 
I was in the world and I did not see that I was to be saved 
while I was in the world? How many people there are in 
the present daj^ who seem to think that no difference how 
they live, beyond the grave somewhere, some place, some 
time or other, God will give them a chance. If a man 
Avill not take the chance from the time he is born until 
he dies to give his heart to God, when will he take it? 
"As the tree falleth, there it lieth." "Enter ye in at the 
straight gate : for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, 
that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go 
in thereat. Because straight is the gate, and narrow is 
the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that 
find it.'' Only two ways ; only tw^o ends ; one is life ever- 
lasting and the other is eternal death. The man, there- 
fore, I say, who lives on from day to day, walking around 
on the earth and does not see that he himself ought to 
be saved while he is on this earth, is nothing but a fool. 

And it seems to me, my dear friends, that it is just 



TWENTIETH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 739 

as foolish if we do not look around this whole world to 
have it saved. It seems to me the average Christian is per- 
fectly satisfied if he can come to church, sit down, take 
up his hymnbook and think, I am a saved man, go home 
and think about his business, and that is all; he is not 
concerned about the man that lives in the next city; he 
is not concerned about the neighbor that lives in the next 
house; he is not concerned about the nations that are 
living in war, and destruction, and darkness; he is not 
concerned about the great commandment of God, Go ye 
into all the world and preach the Gospel, make disciples 
of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, 
Son and Holy Ghost. The man that actually believes he 
is born in sin, that he has condemnation resting upon 
Him, that he has been saved by the only Savior, Jesus 
Christ, and has found peace for his own soul, and realizes 
that he that belie veth not shall be damned, and then goes 
on and does not care whether the whole world is saved or 
not, I question whether that man will be saved himself. 
How can I have the great salvation of my God and be 
satisfied to see a whole race on the other side of the globe 
lost and damned? 

II. Now let me show you Fool No. 2. It is the one 
who carries a watch and never knows what time it is. 
^'Redeeming the time, because the days are evil." There 
are people in this world who know very well that this is 
an evil world; they know that the devil is going about 
like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour; they 
can see the footprints of Satan all around them; they 
know many a neighbor is going to destruction ; they know, 
too, that they ought to be saved ; they take their watch out 
and look at it every day, they hear it ticking, they see 
the hands move, and know that as the hand is moving 
around on the dial, so they are constantly, day and night, 
marching to eternity, but they do not realize that they 
should have been saved long ago — long ago. Why is it 
that so many people want to have the preacher when they 
are about to enter the gate of eternity? Why is it they 
did not want him long ago? Suppose for a single moment 
you were in this audience tonight, not a saved man, and 



740 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

you knew there would be given an opportunity the last 
week of your life to be saved, what will you think about 
that week that you are saved, when you realize that you 
have spent a whole life in this world lost and helping 
others to be lost, and doing nothing for the Savior who 
died on Calvary for you? The man that can look at his 
watch and see day by day what time it is, and does not 
realize that he should have been saved in the beginning 
of his life instead of at the end, is a fool, for if life is 
worth living as a saved man the last week, it is ten thous- 
and times more worth living throughout life. For my 
part I rejoice in the fact that I do not need to look back 
and see months and years when I was a child of the devil 
and not in the covenant of my God. 

And then how about the world? How about the poor, 
lost, dark world, that has been crying for light these 
many years, and has not received it? I do not know how 
we shall ever answer on the Judgment day of God for be- 
ing so sloAV about foreign missions. We very often near 
men say that Avhat we want is more missionary work done 
at home ; but let me ask you this question : Did you ever 
see a man in this world who was interested in the salva- 
tion of people on the other side of the globe that did not 
care about those at home? Do you suppose that the sun 
that shines all over this world does not care to shine 
on one single floAver? Do you suppose that the man that 
is interested in the salvation of the black and the white 
ten thousand miles away, does not care for the salvation 
of the black and white one mile away? If you want to be 
a home missionary you have got to be a foreign missionary, 
mark what I tell a^ou, and the man Avho cannot look out 
beyond his OAvn confines and cannot look out beyond his 
own congregation and beyond his own state and beyond 
his own nation, is too small to be called an intelligent 
Christian. Go back in history a little over tAvo hundred 
years, and up in Massachusetts stands John Elliott, and 
before him stands a Avarrior of our own Indian tribe, and 
the Indian says to him : ^'How does it come that you peo- 
ple have been here for twenty-seven years, and you are 
the first man to come and tell us of Jesus Christ? Our 



TWENTIETH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 741 

fathers have been living in darkness and we have gone on 
in sin ; we might have learned much of the Word of God. 
Why did you not tell us?" And England must answer to- 
day, Why did we not tell the red man the first twenty- 
seven years? We come on down another hundred years 
and we find David Brainard of New Jersey, and there 
stands a chief and says to him : ''Why do you send men 
here to drive us away from our land, and drive us out 
of our homes? Why do you not send men here to tell us 
who our God is and what His Word is that we might be 
saved, and own our own farms?'' Coming down almost 
a hundred years more, in 1840, an Indian, Chief, on the 
Manitoulin Islands, stood before a Wesleyan missionary 
and said to him : ''I am the Chief of a great tribe ; I 
have heard 'for a long time that somewhere our brothers 
have heard from the white men, and there is a great Word 
and a great God: moon after moon we have been looking 
up the river to see the little boat come down and tell us 
who the great God is and the Word that gave the worlds ; 
Why do you not tell us?" Not only has the voice gone 
out from our own nation, the voice came from darkest 
Africa. When Livingston, who died on his knees in prayer 
in that dark land, was confronted by a black warrior, that 
man said to Livingston: "How does it come when you 
people knew that our fathers were living in darkness and 
going to hell every day, that you did not tell us until 
now?" Let England and Europe answer why. Go over to 
Asia among the Hindoos. A large meeting was held not 
many years ago, and there arose a man and said : "Where 
has this religion of yours been all these years? We are 
living in the fourth great age of the world; our fathers 
have been perishing for centuries ; and now you come and 
tell us the only way to be saved is through Jesus Christ. 
When did you find it out, and why did you not tell us? 
Who are the people that knew this?" And one man stood 
up and said: "Europe and America have known it for 
centuries. What kind of religion is this that never told 
us?" The cry is going out all over the world. Why look 
at your watches to know what time it is and not know 
the hour of redemption for the people of the world? Oh, 



742 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

that we had more of those William Tyndalls who, when 
the flames were consuming him, cried out : "O God ! open 
the eyes of the king of England that he may see." Oh, 
that we had more of the Saint Lawrences, who, on the 
burning coals cried out: "O God, save pagan Rome!" Oh, 
that we had more men like the first president of Hamilton 
College, who, when told by his physician that he could 
live only thirty minutes more, said : "Pick me up and set 
me down by the side of the bed on my knees that I can 
pray until I die, God save the world!" And the last 
prayer of his lips was, "God save the world!" He knew 
what time it was, but the fool does not. This cry comes 
from the islands of the sea. Away out in the Sandwich 
Islands, years ago, when Mrs. Thurston conducted a 
school there, women would come into the school and cry; 
and when that lady would say, "Why do you cry?" they 
would answer: "Why didn't you come long ago and tell 
us it was wrong to kill our children? Our hands are 
stained with blood, and we have no children to be taught 
in your school." A great Sunday School convention was 
held in a place called Hilo, and there were thousand^ of 
beautiful children there with flowers and garlands upon 
their heads, singing songs of praise to God. Among them 
was an aged woman and they heard her groaning and 
moaning; they saw her striking on her breast. The mis- 
sionary ran down and said : "What is the matter, 
mother?" "What is the matter? If you had come and 
told me about Christ when I was young these hands would 
not be stained with the blood of twelve of my children; 
they might have been here to-day, but they are not here." 
And she began to tear the hair out of her head. Why? 
Because the world is full of fools that do not know what 
time it is. "Redeeming the time, because the days are 
evil." 

III. There is a third fool, and that is the man who 
is always reading and never learning anything. "Where- 
fore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will 
of the Lord is." "Speaking to yourselves in psalms and 
hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in 
vour heart to the Lord." 



TWENTIETH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 743 

There never was a time when people did more read- 
ing than they do now, and there never was a time when 
Christians knew less of the Bible than they do now. Some 
may question what I say, but you shoAv me the Christians 
of olden days, and they were people of two or three books ; 
they knew their Bibles; they knew what was in every 
book and in every chapter; they knew their hymnbooks 
from beginning to end, but to-day in the exchange of 
hymnbooks and in the putting in of new books into the 
libraries, the world is flooded with a literature that isn't 
worth the paper to kindle the fire to burn it up. If even 
our church libraries are as poor as they nearly all are, 
what can we expect of the public libraries? I read partly 
fourteen books of our own library in the last ten days, 
and out of fourteen there are eleven that are not fit 
to go into any home. Think of a little child spending 
weeks in reading five hundred pages to find out that 
finally some nonsensical Susie got married. That is the 
kind of literature we have in our Sunday School library. 
Think of the people that are sitting doAvn day after day 
and reading novel after novel, story after story, when 
the Word of God is lying at home covered with dust, and 
the hymnbooks are never used to sing in worship. Think 
of the people that are flooding our libraries to get the 
very books they never should look at.. How many people 
are going to the library to-day hunting out books' of devo- 
tion, hunting out good true history, hunting out the 
things that are worth knowing? The fact is the people 
want literature in the form of soup and will not eat meat. 
There never was a time when our country was so flooded 
with books, books, books, and no knowledge. Ask the 
average reader what he knows, and it is nothing. Oh, the 
minds of the people that are being poisoned with the 
nonsensical literature of the day! It is simply awful. 

The apostle called attention to the fact that there 
are some things we ought to know. "Wherefore be ye 
not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord 
is." That is the thing we ought to know. And do you 
realize tonight what one good friend is worth to advise 
us what to read? I remember when a boy of fifteen years 



744 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

of age there came into my possession a publication called 
''Saturday Mght," and I began to read those blood and 
thunder stories; I thought I was doing some wonderful 
reading. When I told a good friend one day what I was 
doing and brought him the paper so he might have the 
good gift also, he said: "How many have you read?" I 
told him. He said: "What do you know?" And I just 
found out I knew nothing; I had been reading, and read- 
ing, and reading, and knew nothing. Had it not been for 
tliat friend, I might have been reading that kind of trash 
yet. Young people, ask yourselves the question tonight. 
What am I reading? What am I learning? What do I 
know of God's Word? What do I know about the Bible? 
What do I know about the good old hymns that can be 
sung in times of trial and death? What do I know about 
the truly devotional books? How many really devotional 
books do you find in the homes in the present day, and 
whose fault is it? The preacher's more than any one's else. 
It is our duty as men of God to see to it that our homes 
are filled with better books, that our libraries are well 
searched, and that good books occupy the place where we 
find trash to-day. So, again I say, those men that are 
constantly reading and do not know Avhat their Bible 
teaches; those men that are constantly reading and not 
devotional enough to even pick up a hymnbook and fol- 
low if they do not sing, that do not know those great 
truths Ave need in times of trouble to sustain us, there is 
only one name to be given to those men, and that name 
is Fool. 

IV. There is a fourth fool I Avish to describe from 
the Word of God, and that is the man that sees himself 
CA^ery day in the looking-glass and never knows himself. 
"And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be 
filled with the Spirit." There is a legend among the 
Arabs running something like this, and written especially 
for the drunkard : They tell us that in the days of Noah 
when he planted his vineyard, as soon as the vine was in 
the ground the devil came and sprayed it with the blood 
of a pea- fowl. The vine grew ; the leaves began to branch 
out, and then he came back again and sprayed the leaves 



TWENTIETH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 745 

with the blood of a monkey. After the vine had blossomed 
and the grapes began to grow, he came a third time and 
sprayed them with the blood of a lion. When the grapes 
were just about ripe he came a fourth time and brought 
the blood of a swine and sprayed it for the last time. 
Then this great stalk assimilated the blood of these four 
animals and when the grapes were ripe and the wine was 
made, it had the effect of doing this : When the man first 
began to drink that wine he soon found that he was grow- 
ing very proud, like a pea- fowl; drinking a little while 
longer and a little more, he found he was getting dizzy, 
and then he would run and jump and make gestures like 
a monkey; a few more drinks and he would go home and 
start a quarrel and roar like a lion; a few more and he 
would lie down and wallow in the mud like a hog. There 
you have got the Arabian legend, the picture of the fool 
that can stand before his glass every day and cannot see 
his own dissipated face, cannot see the temple of the Holy 
Ghost ruined. 

Some have said that Doctor Luther was not as pious 
as he should have been. My dear friends, I want to call 
your attention to one sentence in Luther's sermon on 
drunkenness. He says the drunkard is the swine that 
Satan, the butcher, is leading by a rope to hell to slaughter 
him. There you have got the idea of the great reformer. 
You cannot hide drunkenness behind Dr. Luther nor be- 
hind the Lutheran Church. The man that will stand and 
look into the looking-glass and see his flushed face, and 
see himself, once an innocent little child, kissed by a 
mother's loving lips, now with a face that shows dissipa- 
tion in every line, if that man does not see what he is, 
he certainly is a fool. I have often thought if I were a 
drunkard and could step up to the mirror and see my own 
face, and remember what I once was, and remember what 
is going on with me, and remember that the Word of God 
says. Is not your body the temple of the Holy Ghost? and 
then I could see that I have made a temple of the devil 
and driven out the Holy Spirit, I certainly should walk 
away and say, I have been a fool, but by God's help I am 



746 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE, 

going from this day on to lead a sober life, and come back 
and see in that mirror a man of God. 

V. The fifth fool that I find in the Word of God 
described tonight is the man who could enjoy all of God's 
blessings, but chooses to be an unthankful rebel. Oh, 
what a beautiful life, to give thanks always for all 
things. You have had your trials and your troubles; 
now what? Now get down on your knees and thank God 
for them. Have you done it? There is a Father in heaven ; 
He has a Son, Jesus Christ, and that Son died for the 
sins of the world, and wants to be your Savior and my 
Savior; wants to give you and me His righteousness; He 
wants us to accept that Son and be saved and call His 
Father our Father; He wants us, because we have been 
reconciled to the Father, to learn to love humanity and be 
kind everywhere, and stop our rebellion. But how is it 
with some men? They can see nothing in the world to 
be thankful for, rebelling against everything that hap- 
pens, ungrateful, breathing God's fresh air, eating His 
bread, drinking His water, enjoying all the good things 
that He has given them; they can have ten years of good 
health and never thank God for it; one day of sickness 
to them undoes all the health they have ever had. Oh, 
unthankful fool! Will you never learn to submit to the 
will of your God? Will you never learn to enjoy God's 
blessings and thank Him for them? Will you never see 
in the Father's face the loving heart of God? Will you 
never see in Jesus Christ God's love poured out on Cal- 
vary for you? Will you never stop rebelling against 
heaven and all things that are good? 

Oh, in conclusion let me say to you, be wise. "See 
then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as 
wise." And what is true wisdom? True wisdom is to 
confess your sins to God, accept Jesus Christ as your 
Savior, and by His help try to live every day nearer and 
nearer to Him in the light of His Holy Word; grow in 
grace, and knowledge, and strength ; sink deeper into the 
great wisdom of your God; make up your mind to live 
better day by day as you are growing older, and not only 
sing, but live, nearer, my God, to Thee nearer to Thee! 



TWENTIETH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 747 

and at last when your work on earth is all done, find that 
you have not only been interested in your own souPs 
salvation but in the salvation of the whole world. This 
is wisdom. Be wise and be not a fool. Amen. 

PRAYER. 

O God, our heavenly Father, we thank Thee for that plain Word 
of Thine which has shown us so clearly what true wisdom is, and what 
the greatest foolishness may be. We pray Thee, dear Father in heaven, 
that Thou wilt bless this message to our own soul's good. Oh, do 
Thou give us the vision tonight that can look out beyond our own circle 
to the ends of the earth. Give us a heart that can plead for a poor, 
perishing world. Give us a determination not to lose any more time 
for ourselves nor for those in a lost condition. We ask Thee to bless 
our friends and our foes. We ask Thee to cleanse us from all unrighte- 
ousness, and do Thou lead us in the path of Jesus and in the very 
center of it, who said, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no 
man cometh unto the Father but by Me. Father in heaven, hear our 
prayer which is now offered in the name of Jesus, who taught us to say: 

Our Father who art in heaven; H'allowed be Thy name; Thy 
kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven; Give 
us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation; 
But deliver us from evil ; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 

The Battle of Battles. 

Eph. 6 :10-18. 

fINALLY, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of 
His might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be 
able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not 
against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against 
the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in 
high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that 
ye may be able to stand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 
Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having 
on the breastplate of righteousness ; and your feet shod with the prepa- 
ration of the Gospel of peace ; above all, taking the shield of faith, 
wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. 
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which 
is the Word of God : praying always with all prayer and supplication in 
the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplica- 
tion for all saints. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Th}^ Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved in Christ: — 

When we look over the history of the world we find 
some great battles. Among them in our own country we 
might mention Gettj^sburg, where twenty thousand of our 
Northern soldiers lay in death, and in their own blood; 
we might thus go on and show you battle after battle; 
fought in different parts of the world between armies of 
great numbers; but there is a battle that is greater than 
all the battles between flesh and blood; it is the battle 
referred to in our text, where we are admonished to put 
on the whole armour of God. In order not to take up too 
much time with an introduction, let us at once plunge 
into our theme. I speak to you this evening of 

748 



TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 749 

THE BATTLE OF BATTLES. 

And may the Holy Spirit show each one of us how 
we can be true soldiers of the cross. With regard to 
this battle I shall show you : 

I. The armies. 
II. The armor. 
III. The call to arms. 

I. Which are the armies of this great battle of bat- 
tles? I behold the armies of the devil ! "Put on the whole 
armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the 
wiles of the devil.'' The Apostle Paul recognizes the 
fact that there is a leading poAver for evil as well as for 
good. Paul believes as much in a personal devil as 
he does in a personal Savior, and this Satan has got an 
army. He has got an army of the fallen angels ; an army 
of the lost race ; and an army of popular society. 

We are told in God's Word that Satan fell; that he 
was a holy angel at one time; that he rebelled against 
his God and God cast him out of heaven and a host of 
spirits followed him, and this host of spirits is referred 
to in this letter of Paul's when he says : "For we wrestle 
not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, 
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this 
world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." This 
"spiritual wickedness" is correctly translated wicked 
spirits. We find, therefore, that Satan has a great army 
of wicked spirits, not in heaven, but in high places. The 
German Bible says they are "under heaven," which is by 
far a more intelligent translation. We find then that 
the army which we have to fight as soldiers of the cross 
is not found only walking upon earth, but wherever you 
can find a fallen angel you find a member of the army 
of Satan. You remember the story of Job, how Satan 
tempted him. What did Satan do? He blew his house 
over with a storm ; he caused the fires from heaven to fall 
and devour part of his flocks. That same Satan is today 
yet in the air ; he is in high places. 

We find then that these powers are around us. Not 



750 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

only are there fallen angels in this great army of Satan^ 
but there is a fallen race. When Paul says here, we wres- 
tle not against flesh and blood — or more correctly 
against blood and flesh — he does not mean to say that 
we have no battles on hand with men, but he means to 
say this, that man today on the side of the devil is not 
a soldier of the same kind as we fight in battles simply 
with blood and flesh and nerve and sinew, but that back 
of all this flesh and blood in the lost man there is the 
power of Satan to fight. We would not recognize what 
Paul is trying to bring forth here if we did not see that 
a wicked man is more than simply flesh and blood. You 
realize that a child of God is more than flesh and blood;, 
when a man is born again he has the Holy Spirit in him, 
and having the Holy Spirit in him he is now a three- 
fold person instead of a two-fold person. When we study 
man according to the wisdom of the world, we say he 
is a dual being, having a body and soul, but if you will 
study the Word of God carefully you will find the child 
of God is a three-fold being — body, soul and spirit. Now 
then, when you fight a good man you are not fighting 
only flesh and blood, but you are fighting God in him;, 
and when you are fighting a wicked man, you are not 
fighting and wrestling simply with flesh and blood and 
physical strength, but you are fighting a man who is at 
enmity against God; you are fighting a man that has the 
spirit of Satan in him; you are fighting against princi- 
palities and powers, and not alone flesh and blood. 

The army of Satan, therefore, is largely composed 
of fallen angels, of wicked men, of unregenerated people; 
for, my friends, a man is never on God's side until he is 
born again, and he that is not for Me, says Jesus, is 
against Me. Away with the idea that you can be a kind 
of a neutral man, not exactly in the church, not exactly 
a Christian, but on the other hand you would not be 
called a child of the devil for anything. Now whoever 
you are this evening, my friend, whether an acquaintance 
or a stranger, you are either this evening on the side of 
God, fighting against sin, or you are on the side of the 
devil, fighting against God and all things that are good 



TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 751 

and holy. The man out on the battle field that simply 
stands up and lets his gun rest on the ground, and that 
is neither for the north nor for the south, is either for the 
north "or for the south in spite of the fact that he does 
not do a thing. When I can fight for the north and re- 
fuse to do it, I am a soldier for the south, and when a 
soldier of the south I refuse to fight against the north, I 
am a soldier for the north. The man, therefore, that is 
not fighting for Christ and true Christianity is an enemy 
of God and a soldier of the devil. 

There is still another class that goes to make up this 
army of Satan, and that is popular society. "For we 
wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against princi- 
palities, against powers, against the rulers of the dark- 
ness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high 
places." No one can read that verse carefully without 
finding that Paul has in mind a class of people that are 
ruling the world; that stand high in society; that are 
looked upon as the great leaders; and he says you find 
among them soldiers of the devil. And isn't it true? 
Oh, how much we hear about popular society all over this 
country. Think of those great men of New York that 
have been going all over the world making their popular 
speeches at great banquets as the great leaders of society. 
My dear friends, if Senator Depew were a poor man in 
Mansfield we would have him down here in prison. If 
some of those* great men who have been looked up to in 
society where living in any village, they would never be 
allowed to walk on the streets without the shackles on 
their arms. The man in Columbus a few years ago who 
robbed the Fifth Avenue bank of sixty thousand dollars 
was free in nine months; the man that stole four hams 
the same day is in the penitentiary yet. Sixty thousand 
dollars makes a man a man in high places and a rascal 
that goes free; and the poor man at home that has no 
right to steal because he is poor, but who will steal at 
times to get something to eat, receives no consideration 
nor mercy. There is not a term in all the world today 
that is doing more to mislead the youth of our land than 
this simple, plain term, high society. High society today 



752 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

is as loAv as the gates of hell. There you find the army 
on the side of Satan. 

2. In opposition to that army is another army, and 
that is the army of God. "Put on the whole armour of 
God." God has an army. I do not need to refer to the 
fact that He Himself is the great general, as Satan is on 
the other side. You know that; but I want to tell you 
that God in His army has got a host of holy angels. 
Only a few fell. It was a great host that sang when 
Christ was born : "Glory to God in the highest ; on earth 
peace, good will toward men !" When you remember that 
one of those angels alone could kill one hundred and 
eighty-five thousand soldiers in one night by flying over 
the valley of Sennacherib, you understand the power of 
those angels that sang on the plains of Bethlehem when 
Jesus was born. There is no army of hell that can keep 
one angel from Christ's grave to roll the stone away. 
Remember, my friends, that one angel of God has de- 
fended the bones of Moses to this day, and all the angels 
of hell cannot take those bones away from him. God 
has an army of holy angels that is watching over us to- 
day. The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews tells us 
we have a cloud of witnesses over us, and I am satisfied 
that when Dr. Luther stood there before the Emperor at 
Worms and said: "Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, 
God help me!" he had a cloud of God's holy angels over 
him. I am satisfied when you yourself in God's name 
are going through life fighting the fight of God that you 
are never alone; the holy angels are with you. 

And just as this army has holy angels in opposition 
to the fallen angels of Satan, just so God has an army of 
saved people in opposition to the lost in Satan's army. 
Yes, my friends, God has a large army. You will re- 
member that when Elijah on Mount Carmel imagined 
that he was the only man of God in that country, God 
said, Elijah, there are seven thousand in this country 
that never bowed their knees to Baal. We some times 
imagine that after all, God's people are only a few, but 
remember, two years ago in this own state of ours there 
was a majority on the Republican side of something like 



TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 758 

about eighty thousand people, but when God's people 
came together this year, independent of politics, they 
brought the majority on the other side up to over forty 
thousand. I tell you when you arouse the people of God 
they are a great army, an army of power, and they are 
going to see on the Judgment day that the victory is 
theirs. A man, as [ said a while ago, that is not for God 
is against Him; and on the other hand, when a man is 
not against God he is for Him. 

We not only have in this great army over four hun- 
dred millions of God's people today, but, dear friends, 
we have among these people also another class, and that 
is the true soldier of Christ. Just as soon as a man is 
born again he is a child in the army of God. But the 
Apostle Paul did not direct this text of mine to the little 
children in the faith ; he was speaking here to the heroes, 
and. you will all recognize that there is a difference be- 
tween Christian and Christian, just as there is a differ- 
ence in the army betwen soldier and soldier. We can 
have a million soldiers under Darius, and we can have 
something like thirty or forty thousand under Alexander 
the Great, but there was only one Alexander the Great. 
We have had many soldiers of our own country, but we 
have had only one General Grant; we have had only one 
Sherman that marched to the sea. And thus there are 
men of God who are a ]30wer on the side of God's army. 
I was reading yesterday the life of a man whose name 
is not Jieard very often in these days — - Paleario, a man 
that was born about the year 1500, a man who was one 
of the greatest martyrs of his day. When he was 
asked the question, On what do you rest the foundation 
of your faith, three times he gave the three-fold answer, 
''On Christ; on Christ; on Christ." He wrote against 
the darkness of his age until they said, ''If you do not 
stop we Avill put you in j)risgn." Then that soldier in 
the town of France was condemned to death, and he 
wrote this letter to the judge. It seems to me it is one 
of the most striking letters I ever read, written from 
prison : "At such a time as this, my Judge, no Christian 

48 



754 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

should die in bed. To be accused, to be thrown into 
prison, to be whipped and scourged, to be hanged, to be 
sown into a sack and thrown to the wild animals to 
devour me is too small a punishment for me. If it w^ill 
help spread the truth of Jesus Christ to the world I beg 
of you, sentence me to roast on the burning coals.'' And 
they roasted him to death in 1570. There is the type of 
soldier that I have in mind that can be found in God's 
army. Remember that in three centuries one hundred 
and eighty millions of men and women laid down their 
lives for Jesus Christ, and if you think that Ave have not 
got men in the present day that would die for Christ, 
you are mistaken. Let the persecutions come and they 
would do here in this country as they are doing in Ar- 
menia, they would die for their faith. Such soldiers are 
found in the army of our God. 

II. Let us notice for a few moments the armor. 
What is the armor of the devil and w^hat is the armor of 
God. 

1. As to the armor of the devil, I should say in 
the first place it is deception, "Put on the whole armor 
of God, that je may be able to stand against the wiles 
of the devil." If you understand the woid "wiles," it is 
a term that applies far better to a serpent than to man. 
The Apostle Paul has here in mind the old serpent in 
the Garden of Eden, how that serpent crept in there and 
pretended to know more than God himself, and thus led 
our parents astray. Oh, says Paul, I want you to under- 
stand that that old serpent is still in our midst. That 
old serpent with his deception is misleading and deceiv- 
ing us, making us think we are doing good when we are 
serving him. 

I am holding up to jou the armor of the devil. When 
he wants you and me to sin he does not come as we have 
seen him pictured, with hoofs and horns, saying, I am 
Mr. Devil and I want you to go and do wrong. When 
he wants you and me to sin he comes and says, You can- 
not help this; this is reasonable; this is right; don't you 
see it is the thing to do? Now listen to me and do it; 
there may be a little something wrong about it, but there 



TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 755 

is a little right about it ; you go ahead. And then we go 
and plunge deeper and deeper into sin, and the old devil 
stands back and laughs, and says, God, look, there is one 
of your so-called Christians. Satan comes to you every 
time and says, You are right ; do this and I will show you 
a better way; eat the forbidden fruit and you will get 
3^our eyes open and you will know things as gods. Yes, 
the poor darkened, deceived souls of the world suffering 
today, yet thinking they have their eyes opened when 
they are closed in darkness. 

Not only do we find that this armor consists of de- 
ception, but furthermore of darkness. "For we wrestle 
not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, 
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this 
world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.'^ 
There is nothing that Satan loves so much as darkness. 
He is the king of darkness. He comes from the realm of 
darkness, and if he can just keep the people ignorant of 
God's Holy Word, he has them in darkness ; if he can just 
drive them out of the Church of God he has them in 
darkness; if he can just make them believe they have a 
good reason for being away from the truth, he has them 
in darkness; if he can just make the young man believe, 
Now it is dark, he is ready to sin. And I would give a 
word of admonition to you parents, see to it that your 
lights are burning. I would give you a word of advice con- 
cerning your ovrn home, see to it that no later than eleven 
o'clock your doors are closed and your virgin daughters 
are sleeping in bed under the protection of the holy 
angels. See to it that this king of darkness is not fit- 
ting his armor on you that is going to lead you to de- 
struction. 

He has not only his armor of darkness, but of de- 
struction. "Above all, taking the shield of faith, where- 
with ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the 
wicked." In ancient times, in times of war, very often 
the army would gather up large cane stalks, and then 
put tow and combustibles on the end of that cane and shoot 
the shaft into tlie air, burning; and the enemy, stand- 
ing, looking at these burning shafts going into the air, 



756 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

thought, How beautiful! Then they turned and came 
down into their city and burned them up. There is the 
picture the apostle has in mind, of Satan. Understand 
he has some fiery darts. Sometimes he comes in dark- 
ness, sometimes with deception; sometimes he comes out 
boldly and takes his shaft of fire and says to the Chris- 
tian : You have sinned against the light and there is no 
hope for you any more; you are damned surely, and so 
shoots the fiery dart. Sometimes he comes to those who 
would love to repent and says : What is the use for you 
to repent? You are as good as all the rest; and shoots 
his fiery dart. Sometimes he comes and says : You don't 
need to believe this old Bible any more; and shoots his 
fiery dart. Sometimes he comes with a provocation and 
saj^: Now then, stand up for your rights; get up and 
walk out of the Sunday School; walk out of the church; 
go home; and the devil has shot his fiery dart. Be care- 
ful about these fiery darts. They are the very armor of 
Satan. 

2. See next the armor of God. Do not depend upon 
yourself. When David was to fight with Goliath they 
brought to him a large armor. Oh, he said, I cannot fight 
in this thing; I am not used to it; I will go out in the 
armor of my God; and in the name of the God of Israel 
he picked up the pebbles and tlircAv them, and struck the 
giant down and cut his head off. He had the armor of 
God on, not the armor of some worldly king. So the first 
thing we want to do is to put on the armor of God. 

Not only put it on, but put on the w^hole armor. In 
ancient times you remember people covered their bodies 
with an armor to protect them from the enemy. They 
would wear on their heads an helmet; they would wear 
around their bodies a girdle; they would put on large 
boots and greaves to cover their limbs and feet; they 
would put on a breast plate that extended around and 
covered their backs; they Avould take a shield in one 
hand and a spear in the other, and go to war. Now, 
says Paul, I want you to understand, if you want to 
fight this fight on God's side, you, too, must have suitable 
weapons. Put on the whole armor here described; three 



TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 757 

tinds of weapons: First, three integuments: Girdle 
around the body, shoes on the feet and the breastplate of 
righteousness. "Stand, therefore, having your loins girt 
about with truth, and having on the breastplate of right- 
eousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the 
gospel of peace." Oh, my dear friends, that is the kind 
of integument to put on. 

See that you have around you the girdle of truth. 
How many people will lie to make a dollar; how many 
people will lie to make a little bargain; how many people 
there are that have no regard for the exact truth. You 
cannot be a soldier in God's army if you are not willing 
to tell the truth if the heavens fall. That is the girdle 
you must wear. 

And then you must have the breastplate of righteous- 
ness. The English language is not able to give the right 
meaning of the Greek word thorax, which means not 
only a shield for the breast, but extends around on the 
back, so that no difference whether the enemy is in front 
or back of you, he cannot thrust his sword into your 
body. And thus, says the Apostle Paul, you want to 
wear your shield, a breastplate of righteousness that not 
only covers you in front, but runs all around you; and 
when you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and accept 
Him, He sa3^s. My righteousness is yours, and He puts 
it over you and covers your sins, and you stand in the 
sight of the Holy God as holy as Jesus Christ Himself, 
not because you are flesh and blood, but because you have 
the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which is perfect. Wear 
that garment and then you will be putting on the whole 
armor. 

And then have for your shoes the gospel of peace. 
How many people are really wearing gospel shoes? They 
are perfectly willing to take their shoes and go to a 
dance, to run on any forbidden path, to gad around w^here 
they should not be, but how many Christians are there 
today that are wearing out their shoe soles to save souls, 
to bring the Gospel to the poor, the lost and the dying? 
If you want to be a soldier in God's army, wear the Gos- 
pel shoes of peace. Instead of trying to stir up an enemy 



758 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

and make trouble, try to cause peace, and not only the 
peace between man and man, but between man and God. 

Tlien when you have put on these three integuments^ 
take two defensive weapons. "Above all, taking the shield 
of faith, wherewith je shall be able to quench all the 
fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of sal- 
vation." 

Have the shield of faith. Oh, that we had more faith 
in God. When you read the New Testament through 
carefully you will find that Christ is constantly rebuking 
His disciples because of their little faith ; and when Satan 
comes to us, what shall we do when he hurls one of those 
fiery darts at as? What shall we do? Like the ancients, 
hold up the shield. The old shield of the Romans was 
some four feet by two and a quarter; it was oval shaped 
so that when the darts came, no difference what direc- 
tion they came from, it glanced off one way or the other; 
and thus he would stand, turning the darts away with 
the shield in one hand, and with the sword in the other 
hand he would fight. O man of God, when Satan comes 
and says, You poor, lost, condemned sinner, there is no 
hope for you, hold up the shield and say to him, "Him 
that Cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out.'^ "The 
blood of Jesus Christ His Son, cleanseth us from all sin."^ 
Away, ye fiery darts ! When Satan comes to you and says 
you do not need to repent, hold up the shield and say: 
"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven it at hand!" And 
thus go on through life, holding the shield in one hand, 
and on your head the helmet of salvation. 

You must defend your head when you go to war, and 
the best helmet you can have is the helmet of salvation. 
You understand that when the old soldier used to wear 
the helmet, it was impossible for any one to strike his 
brain with the sword; but Paul says. Away with the old 
helmet of steel ; what you want is the salvation of Christ, 
to know tliat you are saved; and then, if we are saved, 
who can hurt us? How could they hurt PauFs head if 
they would cut it off when the holy angels took it and 
put the crown of eternal life on it? How could they 
hurt you and me when we are children of God? Why 



TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 75& 

do I need to fear death, or anything, or anybody when I 
^m true to my God? When you have the defensive shield 
in the one hand, and the helmet of salvation on your 
Tiead, you can go through life and fear neither death, the 
devil, nor hell. 

But we are not only to have defensive weapons; we 
are also to have offensive weapons. Paul not only said 
to take the helmet of salvation, but he went on to say: 
"And the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God." 

I tell you the Bible is the greatest sword ever given 
to the world. It is not the sword of steel, but the sword 
of the Spirit. It is God's sword. Whenever you have 
the Bible in your hand you have the sword of the 
Almighty God. When Christ was tempted, what did 
Satan do? Satan asked Him three times to do 
this and that, and what was the response? Jesus 
said : It is written ; it is written ; it is Avritten. And 
with those three strokes He drove Satan away. Tliat is 
the reason that these little children should be well cate- 
chized; that is the reason they should learn Bible verses, 
and have the Word of God in their minds. What good 
does your Bible do in your home, if you leave it down on 
the table and do not know what is in it? When Satan 
comes around and strikes at you, how are you going to 
strike back unless you have the Word of God in your 
heart and mind? That is why I say we she aid commit 
Bible verses. W^hen Jesus said, "It is written: Thou 
shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt 
thou serve/' then Satan was repulsed. And when he 
comes to you and to me and we take the sword of the 
Spirit in our hands and strike at him, that is one thing 
the devil cannot stand — God's holy Word. 

There is not only the sword of the Spirit, but you 
will find in times of war that frequently they throw large 
shells over into the city and burn it. In this great war 
Avhich we have against Satan, we have no weapon of 
steel; we have no bombs to throw over into the city, no 
shells of any kind, but there is something else we can do. 
■'Traying always with all prayer and supplication in the 
:Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and 



760 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

suplication for all saints." Then let us remember that 
while we cannot throw a shell into the city, we can throw 
a prayer to heaven, and when we call upon God to help 
us in this great battle of ours, He throAvs help down from 
on high. These enemies, angels of the devil, are in high 
places, but they are not in heaven; they are in high 
places, but not as high as the poAver of God, and from 
heaA^en on high, God will give us angels and His help. 
Therefore, use these weapons, and Avhen you have the 
strength of God in you, then fight. 

III. NoAV Ave haA^e seen the armor, at last I Avould 
cry out Avith the Apostle Paul, To arms! to arms! You 
know the army; you knoAv the armor; AAhat is our duty? 

Our duty is to fight in the name of the Lord and 
by the power of His might. "Finally, my brethren, be 
strong in the Lord, and in the poAver of His might." 

Finally, after I have told you, says the Apostle Paul,, 
as God's standing army, of your divine election, after I 
have exhorted you to unity and holiness and love, after 
I have spoken to you of the duty of AAdves and of hus- 
bands, and children and parents, after I have told you 
all this, finally it is time for AAar. Finally, to arms! Be 
strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. And 
do not think for a moment that these phrases are one 
equiA^alent to the other. There is quite a difference be- 
tween being strong in the Lord and in the power of His 
might. Why is it that so many Christians fall? It is 
because they are depending upon their OAvn strength. And 
Paul here says, see to it that you get your strength from 
God — in the strength of the Lord. In the second place, 
he says, AA^hen you have got God's strength, then use it in 
the poAver of His might. So you see the difference. The 
one is the store-house of poAA^er; the other is the poAver 
put into execution. And so I would urge upon you this 
morning, to arms, my Christian soldiers. First of all, 
give up your own power. Give up the idea that you can 
fight this battle in your OAvn power. That is where you 
have missed it before; that is where I have missed it be- 
fore; I have said, I am a strong man; I have been on 
God's side all my life; there is no danger; and the first 



TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 761 

thing we know what are we doing? Blundering here and 
there. What is the trouble? We have depended upon 
our own strength of flesh and blood instead of getting 
the power of God Himself. It is God's war, it is not ours ; 
-and being God's war, let us, in the first place, get our 
strength. How shall we get it? 

^'Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in 
the power of His might." There is the secret of victory. 

When you have got God's power, then stand. We are 
told time and again by the apostle to be sure and stand. 
*' Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that 
ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having 
done all,' to stand." In this army of God there is no use 
to retreat, no use to turn back. If we were fighting with 
flesh and blood or with our own power, we would have to 
retreat ; but when we stand here in the power of our God, 
then stand, because Almighty God never needs to retreat. 

Not only stand, but strike. Oh, what a power there 
is in Avielding this sword. I do not believe Ave wield this 
power as much as Ave ouglit. In this great battle we 
ought to be progressiA^e. That army that is satisfied with 
standing on the same battle field all the time isn't worth 
l)eing called an army. When the Japanese went on to 
conquer, they marched forward in the midst of rain, and 
wind and storm, pressing on until Russia Avas conquered. 
And just so my friends, in this great battle of ours; hav- 
ing the poAver of God it is our duty not only to stand, but 
to i)ress forward and take the sword of the Spirit and 
strike and cut down until the enemy falls. 

I knoAV very well what some of you are thinking this 
evening. I can tell what people are thinking about Avhen 
they sit before me. Some people wish this eA^ening that 
our pastor hadn't said what he did about popular society 
and the dance, etc., but I mean to press forward; I mean 
to strike and strike liard, and Avhen I see sin coA'ered up 
by delusions of the devil, I am going to cut to the heart, 
because Ave never Avill think until our eyes are opened; 
and the thing for us to do is to know we are right, and 
when we knoAA^, strike with all the power of Almighty 



762 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

God, and the victory will be ours. It is bound to come.. 
It is not as some people think that we make progress in 
spite of our weakness. If I had come here some two or 
three years ago and just said some nice little things, I 
would have entertained you for a day or two, and you 
would have gone home and you would be there this even- 
ing. You would not have been in the house of God. 
God'S truth is a sharp SAvord, and it cuts to the marrow 
and to the bone; and if we are going to fight this fight of 
God; if we are going to fight this battle of battles, we 
must not ask, what does this man or that man think. This 
thing of playing aound with the truth will do no good. 
Swords are made to cut and slash and they must cut and 
slash until men can see their wickedness and see the 
wiles of the devil, and come out on the side of God. 

Finally, says Paul, finally — Paul could not be with 
this people for life; he had fought until he was near the 
end of his course, but he says. My dear Ephesians, the- 
church for which I have prayed and worked so hard, 
needs you as soldiers; put on the armor; fight; 
strike hard; press on to victory. The victory is coming, 
and it will come. Only a few more years, my friends, and 
this battle Avill be over, but remember, the hardest time 
of battle is just before the victory. You men who fought 
on that field at Gettysburg, don't you remember how you 
fought in the last moments, when at times you almost felt 
as if the flag must come down; but once more you struck 
and the victory came! And so it will be with us. Do 
not think because you are an old Christian that your 
temptations are over. The devil does not care how true 
you are to your cliurch, how true you are to the Bible, 
how true to your Sunday school, the first ten years, or 
the next ten years; he does not care if you are true to 
the last week; if the devil were sure that you and I 
would come over on his side the last day of our lives, he 
would say. Let's have a prayer meeting and call upon 
God today; anything, just so he gets the victory at last. 
Oh, I urge upon you aged fathers and mothers, don't 
think you are safe because father and mother were; don't 
think you are safe because you helped build a big church ;: 



TWENTY-FIKST SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 763 

<ion't think you are safe because you have battled so 
long; what are you going to do from now until you die? 
Onward! Upward, in the name of God Almighty, until 
the gates of heaven are opened and you are safe at home, 
-and the angels are singing, Victory! Victory! Victory! 
The battle is over! 

PRAYER. 

O God, our Father in heaven: We thank Thee for this hour; 
we thank Thee for this blessed privilege of speaking of the two great 
armies, but Thine, O God, is the great army, for Thou hast the armor 
of light, and Thou has called To arms ! May every one in this house 
this evening' take up his arms and fight the battle of battles. We ask 
this in Jesus' name, who taught us to pray : 

Our Father who art in heaven; Hallowed be Thy name; Thy 
kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven; Give 
us this day our daily bread ; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation; 
But deliver us from evil ; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 

The First Foreign Missionary. 

Phil. 1:3-11. 

1 THANK my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every 
prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, for your 
fellowship in the Gospel from the first day until now; being con- 
fident of this very thing, that He which has begun a good work in you 
will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Even as it is meet for 
me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart; inasmuch 
as both in my bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the Gospel, 
ye are all partakers of my grace. For God is my record, how greatly 
I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. And this I pray, 
that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all 
judgment; that ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may 
be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ; being filled with 
the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory^ 
and praise of God. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved in Christ: 

It is hard for us in this civilized land of Christian 
churches to realize how Asia could send a foreign mis- 
sionary to Europe, and yet there was a day when Europe 
was all heathen; there was a day when only the aborigines 
were in this land ; there was a day when Saul, now called 
Paul, saw in the night a vision of a man standing before 
him saying. Come over into Macedonia and help us; and 
he immediately recognized the fact that it was his duty 
to leave Asia and go to Europe as a foreign missionary. 
The first churcli that he established on European soil was 
in the city of Philippi, and the letter which I have se- 
lected my text from was a letter to that first foreign mis- 



TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 765 

sion church in the world. 1 call your attention tonight 
to this first foreign mission, because I find it the church 
which Paul loved above all other churches. It was what 
we ministers call our first love, as far as congregations 
are concerned. There Avas something about that church 
at Philippi that appealed to Paul's big heart. It was the 
first church that he established according to his own 
notion of a real Christian church. He was now away from 
the thralldom of the Holy Land; he was away from the 
prejudices of false notions about true religion, among a 
set of heathen, where he could establish the church as he 
knew it should be. Tliere is something grand and noble 
in the little missions which we have established ourselves, 
which we have built up according to our idea of a Chris- 
tian congregation. When we step into an old congrega- 
tion we always find a great many old notions that people 
are bound to cling to just because they are old notions, 
and there is no other reason for it; but when we estab- 
lish a church of our own, on the Rock of Ages, the people 
are willing to accept whatever appears as truth and is 
excellent, and the consequence in this case was that the 
apostle Paul established a church which appealed to him 
and he appealed to it as long as he lived. "I thank my 
God upon every remembrance of you, always in every 
prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, for 
your fellowship in the Gospel from the first day until 
now; being confident of this very thing, that He which 
hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the 
day of Jesus Christ." In these few words you find the 
apostle PauPs great heart resting upon that foreign mis- 
sion, and may we this evening, as we sit here in this great 
house of God, learn from that first foreign missionary 
what an ideal church should be. 

THE FIRST FOREIGN MISSIONARY. 

We find what the ideal church should be by knowing 

I. Its creed. 
II. Its cost. 

I. What was the creed of the first foreign mission 



766 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

church in Europe? It is not hard to tell what the creed 
was. Paul says : "Always in every pra^^er of mine for 
you all making request Avith joy, for your fellowship in 
the Gospel from the first day until now." Fellowship in the 
Gospel. What is the Gospel? The Gospel is the glad tidings 
that Jesus Christ has come into the world to save sinners 
and through faith to make us forever blessed. The apostle 
Paul believed in the Apostles' Creed. He believed in mak- 
ing diligent use of the means of grace, for remember, 
where the Gospel is preached, tliere we must find the 
means of grace. How did Paul go to Europe to establish 
the church? He went there with the Word of God; he 
went there with tlie sacraments of Holy Baptism and the 
Lord's Supper; and these are the means of grace which 
brought to that dark and perishing world the everlasting 
Gospel in wliich they had fellowship with each other. 

1. It is not hard to see that the apostle Paul laid 
great stress upon Holy Baptism. If you will read the 
sixteenth chapter of Acts where he founded this church 
at Philippi, you will soon understand what I am sajdng. 
When he came to that city he found a very cold reception, 
until he happened to hear that down along a certain 
stream on a Sabbath day there were a few women who 
were trying the best they knew Iioav to worship God. It 
is true those women had no correct conception of the 
Triune God; they knew nothing, or very little, about the 
story of Christ, but they did know that there was a God, 
and they did knoAV that God should be worshipped, and so 
they went beyond the gates, where alone they could have 
under the blue skies of heaven, a communion with their 
God. Paul went out where those women were, and the 
first woman to take the Gospel of Christ was Lydia. Lydia 
opened the door of missions in Europe. What a comfort 
it ought to be to all the Christian women in this con- 
gregation tonight to know that it was through a woman 
that the Gospel of Christ was introduced into Europe. 
Lydia heard tlie Word of God with gladness. 

And what did Lydia then do? She obeyed the sermon 
of the apostle Paul and was immediately baptized, and 
Iier whole household. That is the kind of people I love. 



TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 767 

This way of conducting the Christian church, of having 
fathers here and mothers there, and a son here, and a 
daughter there in the church is not apostolic. The first 
mission church consisted of the motlier, the parents and 
the cliildren, and the servants, all coming into the house 
of God. In that same chapter we read that in a very 
short time the apostle's preaching was arousing the very 
Satan in the minds of the people. One man said. If this 
man keeps on preaching here I Avill lose my trade; and 
so there was a great stir in the city, and they got this 
little apostle that came over from Troas and striped his 
back until the blood ran from it, and then they took him 
to the prison, and they threw him into the inner prison, 
and put his feet in the stocks and said, Now we will see 
if we cannot shut your mouth; and they slammed the door 
of his prison. But there w^as another man with him — 
Silas — and there they sat with their feet in the stocks ; 
they could not sleep, and at midnight Paul said to Silas,. 
Let's sing. Oh, I wish I could have heard that duet. I 
would to-day travel many miles to hear those two 
men sing in that midnight hour, with their feet in the 
stocks, in the city of Philippi. They were establishing^ 
their first mission in Europe, and when they began to 
sing it seems to me that I can hear the very Father in 
heaven saying. Ye angels, listen! There is a duet down 
in Philippi in the heathen land, by two men sung to the 
praise of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. And I hear 
the very Father in heaven saying, Michael, fly with all 
your power; go, and shake that prison until the doors fly 
open, and shake those stocks until the prisoners are free, 
and break the chains of every prisoner, until at last the- 
jailer observing what is happening, with wan face cries 
out and says, I will take my life! Paul says. Do thyself 
no harm; we are all here. Then the man realizes he ife; 
in the presence of Almighty God and cries out: Sirs,, 
what must I do to be saved? Paul and Silas said: Be- 
lieve on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, 
and thy house. And then he washed the stripes off of 
his back and took him the same hour of the night and 
baptized him and his whole household. That is the kind 



768 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

of a creed I love, that is not satisfied with the salvation 
of one man in the family and the rest going €o the devil ; 
not satisfied with father and mother baptized, and the 
children growing up like weeds. Whenever you find Paul 
establishing a church, he begins with the parents, and is 
not satisfied until the whole household belongs to the 
church of God. You would almost suppose Paul was a 
Lutheran, wouldn't you? That is good Lutheran doc- 
trine; that is Bible doctrine; that was the doctrine of the 
first mission in Europe. 

Not only did they celebrate this wonderful sacrament 
of Holy Baptisui there, but they laid much stress upon 
the preaching of God's Word. Kemember, my friends, 
that the apostle Paul was the man who said, I am de- 
termined to know nothing among you but Christ and Him 
crucified. The Word of God is the lamp that lights our 
feet and shoAvs us the way to go. The Word of God is 
the voice of the Holy Spirit. It is the sword of the Spirit, 
as we heard last Sunday evening, that cuts to the very 
heart, and if we ever expect to make Christians of the 
world, we must proclaim the law and the Gospel in which 
the people are to have fellowship and find Christ their 
Savior. And so in this great first mission we find that the 
Word of God is precious. They longed to hear this old 
apostle preach the mighty story of the cross on Calvary. 

You will not forget tliat just below Philippi lies the 
city of Corinth. Y"ou will remember that the apostle 
Paul, when he found that the Corinthians were not mak- 
ing a correct use of the Lord's Supper, wrote them a 
strong letter and told them what great revelation he had 
received from heaven, that when Christ said. This is My 
body. He meant it; and when He said. This is My blood, 
He meant it. In that first foreign mission we find the 
Lord's Supper, the fellowship of the Gospel, in which 
Christ comes to give Himself to those true Christians. 
No wonder Paul loved that first mission. They made dili- 
gent use of the means of grace. 

2. I find the creed of that first mission also laid 
great stress upon true conversion. "Being confident of 
this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work 



TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 769 

in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Even 
as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I 
have you in my heart; inasmuch as both in my bonds, 
and in the defense and confirmation of the Gospel, ye 
are all partakers of my grace." 

The apostle Paul not only called attention to the fact 
that tliey were to use the means of grace in that first mis- 
sion, but they also received the grace. Now a man may 
go to church all the days of his life; he may hear the 
Word of God; he may even be baptized; he may even go 
to the Lord's Supper; he may make use of all the means 
of grace, and at the same time turn his hardened heart 
against the reception of that grace. What good does it 
do you tonight to sit here and hear God's truth and make 
ui) your minds you will not receive it? I have heard men 
say, AVhat is the use to baptize a little infant? That 
little infant may grow up and go to hell. Why yes, and 
so may you, old sinner. Have you never seen old babes 
baptized that rejected their baptism and went to destruc- 
tion? But let me go a step further. You all admit that 
the Word of God is a poAver ; you admit that the Word of 
God is a means of grace, and do you not know many j)eo- 
ple that sit down year after year and hear God's AVord, 
and they are the same old sinners they have always 
been? Why? Because they liear tlie Word of God but 
they do not accept it. God does not take a man by the 
back of the neck and force him into the kingdom of heaven. 
He says, Here are the means of grace. Bei^ause there is 
a fountain coming out of the hill and you sit down below 
it and will not drink, is no sign the Avater is not good. 
Because you refuse to eat when the table is covered with 
food, is no sign that the food isn't good. And because 
you will sit down and listen to God's Word but will not 
accept it, is no sign that the Word of God is not a power. 
The apostle Paul calls attention to the fact that the little 
first mission ux3 at Philipjji not only made use of the 
means of grace, but accepted the grace. When Paul said 
to them, This is the Word of God, they said Amen to it. 
When Paul said to them that they should be baptized and 

49 



770 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

have their children baptized, and their servants, they 
said, We will do it, and the first two families in Europe 
all became Christians and accepted Jesus Christ. The 
members of that little mission said, Paul, if you have got 
a blessing we want it; if you know something of God's 
Word that we do not know, we want to hear it and accept 
it; if there is a blessing in the Lord's Supper we want it 
often; and so Paul writes to them and says, I have got 
you in my heart; ye are all partakers of my grace; my 
Savior is your Savior ; my forgiveness is your forgiveness ; 
my hope is your hope ; my heaven is your heaven ; you are 
converted Christians. Would to God that more church 
members today were converted Christians. 

What do I mean by that? I mean exactly what God's 
Word means by conversion. Conversion means to repent 
of our sins and to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as 
our own personal Savior. How can you, my dear hearers, 
be satisfied with your sinful life? How can you be sat- 
isfied with a single sin unforgiven? How can you be sat- 
isfied with the uncertainty of salvation? How can you 
be satisfied with yourself when you know that you are at 
enmity against God? How can you be satisfied with your- 
self when you know that you are in rebellion against the 
truth? Oh, dear friends, open your eyes and see that you 
are a sinner, that the curse of God rests upon all sinners 
until they accept the atonement of Jesus Christ, the Lamb 
of God, that died on Calvary's hill. When you realize 
that you yourself have driven the nails into the hands and 
feet of Jesus Christ; when you realize that it was your 
sins that scourged His back and slapped Him in the face, 
and spit in His face, and buffeted Him, and when you 
realize that it was your sin and mine that crushed the 
cruel crown of thorns down upon His head; when you 
realize that He, the innocent Lamb of God, should not 
have died, and that 3^ou should have been in His place, 
that He became your substitute, the Lamb of God that 
beareth away the sins of the world, then you will begin 
to see your sins in a light you never did before. Then you 
will say. Oh, my God, what shall I do? Then the answer 



TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 771 

will come that came to the first church at Philippi, Be- 
lieve in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved 
and thy house. Then your determination will be to for- 
sake your sinful life and to walk in the footprints of the 
great Son of God, and you Avill try your best every day 
to do more and more for Him who died for you. This is 
conversion. That is the kind of people that were in the 
first mission in Europe; they partook of the grace of 
the apostle Paul. 

3. They were not only truly converted Christians 
and believed in the true and living God, but they further- 
more were a people Avho believed in growing sanctifica- 
tion. "And this I pray, that your love may abound yet 
more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; that 
ye may approve things that are excellent ; that ye may be 
sincere and without ofPense till the day of Christ; being 
filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus 
Christ, unto the glory and praise of God." In the sixth 
^erse he said: "Being confident of this very thing, that 
He which hath begun a good work in you will perform 
it until the day of Jesus Christ." Now that little mission 
up at Philippi did not have old established Christians 
right in the beginning. They were new members and their 
knowledge was very limited, but they had accepted Jesus 
Christ fully, they had accepted the means of grace fully; 
they wanted every blessing that they could get, and Paul 
said. Now I hope that you will abound more and more, 
that you will grow, and the God that began this work in 
you, He will be able to finish it. And thus this churcn 
had in its creed sanctification. 

What do I mean by sanctification? I mean that when 
we have been saved by the grace of God that we should 
day by day try our best to step a plane liigher in the Chris- 
tian life. That does not mean that we should be proud 
Pharisees; it does not mean that we cannot grow, for we 
are told in God's Word that a man must grow on as long 
as he lives; even the apostle Paul never claimed to be 
perfect in this world. "Not as though I had already at- 
tained, either were already perfect; but I follow after, 
if that I may apprehend that for which also I am appre- 



772 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

hended of Christ Jesus.'' With a pastor like the apostle 
Paul, realizing his imperfections, but every day pressing- 
forward and higher, that little mission at Philippi was a 
mission of sanctification. 

That mission was not afraid to pray. In the nine- 
teenth verse he says: "For I know that this shall turn 
to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of 
the Spirit of Jesus Christ." No difference where Paul 
was, he remembered that his little church up at Philipjji 
was praying for him. It was about nine years later that 
he wrote this letter, from the time he was in the stocks 
in the jail, but he said. No difference where I go, I know 
I have a little praying mission up in Europe that is not 
forgetting me. Oh, what a glorious thing it is for a pastor 
to know that his people are praying for him! May your 
prayers ascend tonight to the throne of God in behalf of 
him who is proclaiming the everlasting Gospel to you now. 

Not only was that a church that was praying ; it was 
a church that was full of love. "And this I pray, that 
your love may abound yet more and more." Oh, how the 
little church loved Paul! No difference where he was 
they sent letters to him, and sent gifts, and told him that 
they were praying for him. He could not forget that love. 
They loved their own members ; they loved their enemies ; 
they loved their friends; they loved missionary work. 
Whenever you want to find a church that has the true 
missionary spirit, you have got to find one that itself was 
established with the missionary spirit. Whenever a church 
has no foreign missionary spirit in it, it simply will die. 
You show me a congregation that is satisfied simply with 
having a sermon every Sunday, with a few of its own 
members there, not caring how anybody else will get 
along, that church is bound to go down and die. The 
church of God that will prosper is like the little church 
down at Philippi. No sooner had they established a 
church there, than these dear Christian people said : Paul, 
we are only a few people here; down here is Corinth and 
here is the great country of Europe, all heathen; tell 
them the story of God's love. And when Paul said, I am 
a poor man, how can I go? they reached into their pockets 



TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 773 

and gave of their poverty, and said: Go on out and tell 
the story of Christ wherever you can. Paul went away, 
but he never forgot their love, and he said, I want you lo 
grow in sanctification. I want you as a church to be pro- 
gressive. If there is anything excellent, accept it; if 
there is anything that will give you more knowledge, 
accept it; if there is anything that will lead you further 
on, go on; learn more and more, and your judgment will 
become brighter and brighter; and as you go on m your 
progress the day Avill come when you and I shall have 
reached the mark for which we are pressing in this life 
through sanctification. 

Not only were they a church of love, but as a church 
they were very benevolent. That little church at Philippi 
was. the grandest church Paul ever established in its lib- 
erality. When he writes to the Corinthians and wants to 
hold up to them the model church of the world, he speaks 
of the little church at Macedonia, the little church which 
out of their poverty gave for the riches of Christ. He 
holds up that church as the model for all Christian 
churches in their liberality. In the same letter he writes 
these words: "Now ye Philippians know also, that in 
the beginning of the Gospel, when I departed from Ma- 
cedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning 
giving and receiving, but ye only. For even in Thes- 
salonica ye sent once and again unto my necessity. Not 
because I desire a gift, but I desire fruit that may abound 
to your account. But I have all and abound. I am full, 
having received of Epaphroditus the things which were 
sent from you, an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice ac- 
ceptable, well pleasing to God. But my God shall supply 
all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ 
Jesus. Now unto God and our Father be glory forever 
and ever. Amen." Thus he closed that great letter of 
his to the first foreign mission in Europe. 

II. I have now shown you in a few words the creed 
of that first mission. Let us now ask the question, What 
was the cost? The cost of that mission. Very frequently 
you hear people say that it does not pay to establish mis- 



'774 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

sions; they are too costly. It might be well therefore, to 
ask the question, what did the first foreign mission cost? 
Let us ask Paul, What did it cost? Well, I can hear 
the apostle soliloquizing like this : I might have been a 
wealthy lawyer; I might have been a great philosopher 
and lived in luxury, but when I came to Europe as a 
foreign missionary it was the greatest enterprise of my 
life. My dear friends, have you ever stopped to realize 
what it meant for the apostle Paul to leave Troas and 
go to Eu*rope, where Alexander the Great met Darius 
with his millions of an army? But Alexander the Great 
had at least thousands of well equipped soldiers; but 
here is a little man in his little bark sailing across the 
Aegean Sea, a lonely soldier of Christ, to conquer all 
Europe. What did it cost him? Without one cent of 
salary, without a home to go to, with only a voice saying. 
Come over to Macedonia and help us, he starts out, and 
in a very short time, as I told you a while ago, if you 
want to find Paul, where would you hunt for him? Where 
is tbe man Paul, Mr. Ruler? Oh, we just scourged him 
yesterday until we cut his back until the blood was run- 
ning off of him in streams. What did you do with him? 
You will find him down there in the jail. We will go 
down to the jail and look around and say. Where is 
Paul? Got him back there in the corner of the inner 
prison. I walk back, and the first thing I see is four feet 
extended toward me, two of Paul and two of Silas. I 
say, Paul, what are you doing here? I am paying the price 
for this first mission. Are you getting enough to eat? 
No, sir. Are you sore? Oh, I should say so; my back 
does hurt. Well, how are you going to get out of this? 
Never mind, God will help us. And so that night God 
shook the jail and helped them out. I follow Paul for 
the next year of his life, and I find him down in the 
prison at Rome, and I say, Paul, how do you like this 
work? Well, I expect some of these days they will take 
me out of this Avorld, and I am not caring very much; I 
have told Europe all I could about Christ. For me to 
live is Christ and to die is gain; I am perfectly willing 
to lay down my life. And then at last I see them going 



TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 77S 

out in a crowd from the great city of Rome. I say, What 
is going on? Some one says, They are going to take that 
little hump-backed Jew and cut his head off. I watch 
them as they lay him on the block and with the knife cut 
his head off; and as his head drops into the bag and I 
there see the blood stream out of his little body, I ask 
myself the question, What did that first mission cost? 
And there comes an ansAver back from the dripping blood : 
The life of the best man since the days of Christ. That 
is what the first mission cost. 

Is that all? I go to my Father in heaven in prayer 
and I say : O Father in heaven, what did that first mission 
cost? And I hear Him say: It cost the life of my Son, 
Jesus Christ. I go to Calvary's hill, and I see men gath- 
ering around there, and I see them lift up one of the 
grandest looking men that ever walked on earth; He is 
the God-man; I see them there in all the cruelty of their 
Satanic hearts, drive the nails through His hands and His 
feet; I see Him hanging there for three long hours in the 
burning sun; there is no question about who this is; it 
is Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God. That noon the 
sun goes down and I peer through the darkness; He is 
there yet; and there I find Him treading all alone the 
wine press of God's wrath in tlie very bitterness of hell, 
and I hear him moan and groan as the bloody gore drips 
down from that cross, and I say, What art Thou doing. 
Thou Lamb of God? And I hear Him say: I am paying 
the price for the first mission in Philippi. I hear Him 
say: My God! my God! why hast Thou forsaken Me? He 
is now bearing your curse, and mine, in the very abyss 
of hell. And at last the Father shows His face, and the 
Son says: Into Thy hands I commit My Spirit. And He 
bows His head and dies. It is finished. You are re- 
deemed. I am redeemed. The price is paid for the first 
mission at Philippi. That is what foreign missions cost. 
But I am not done yet. 

The man who cannot read history as it is connected 
in golden links for thousands of years is blind to the 
truth. I ask myself the question : Where did this great 
man Paul come from? And I hear him say in this letter: 



776 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

"Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of 
the tribe of Benjamin, an HebreAV of the Hebrews; as 
touching the law, a Pharisee." What? This man Paul 
that came as a foreign missionary, an offspring of Ben- 
jamin? And, Benjamin, where didst thou come from? 
And I go back into history and I find a man named Jacob, 
who married Leah and loved Kachel. God in His infinite 
wisdom at last said, Jacob, Eachel shall be yours. Rachel 
prayed and prayed that she might give to the Avorld a 
son, but for a long time it looked as though her pra^^ers 
were not heard; but at last God said to her, Now thou 
shalt bear a son; and she called his name Joseph; and 
that man Joseph has played a great and prominent part 
in the conversion of the world. When that little boy Avas 
born prophetically Rachel said, I shall bear another. For 
a long time it looked as though it Avere not true. God 
said to Jacob : Go and hunt up the place where you one 
time put your head upon a stone and looked up to heaven 
and saw the ladder, a A^ery type of Christ. And then he 
started back for Bethel, on the road that leads to Beth- 
lehem; and when he came down there, then Rachel said, 
I will give to the world another son. Yes, Rachel gave 
to the world a great son. But when that son was being 
born, Rachel was dying. A child coming into the Avorld, 
a mother going to heaven. Her last words as Benjamin 
came into the Avorld aa ere "Ben-oni" — in our own lan- 
guage. The son of my right hand; or, in another place, 
The son of my pain; the child for which I lived, and the 
child for which I died, and I say to poor Rachel as she 
lies there dying by the side of her second born son : What 
have you done? And she says: I have given to the Avorld 
a boy that shall bring into the world a Saul; a Saul aa^Iio 
shall become a Paul; a Paul who shall teach Lydia and 
open the door for Christ into Europe and to the Avorld; 
I have given my life for the first foreign mission in 
Europe. 

Do missions pay? Ask the civilized lands of the world. 
I know that the first foreign mission cost the life of Paul 
and cost the life of Jesus Christ, and cost the life of 
Rachel, but T want you to understand that it was the 



TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 777 

greatest investment ever made and the best. If you were 
to ask today, Why is it that this country is such a great 
country, you would have to trace America, with all her 
splendid inventions and her great institutions of learn- 
ing, back to the doors of Europe ; and if you were to trace 
our civilization and our glorious liberty back over the 
seas, you would come to Scotland, and to England, doAvn 
through Germany, down to the church at Philippi, down 
to little Paul, who preached the mighty Gospel in the 
first foreign mission of the world. 

My dear friends, had it not been for that first foreign 
mission at Philippi, all Europe would be heathen today; 
and if Europe were heathen to-day, America would be 
in darkness ; and if America and Europe were in dark- 
ness today, w^hat would poor, blind Asia and Africa do? 
The world would be in ignorance. That first foreign 
mission was the door of the civilization and the Chris- 
tianization of the world, and all Europe today, and all 
America today, sends forth one great voice of thanks- 
giving to God, and to Paul, for the first foreign mission 
at Philippi. 

Did it pay? Go back and ask the heathen lands of 
the world. In the days of Paul Asia did not realize what 
she did. When Asia gave up Paul she gave up her light. 
When she sent Paul over to Philippi, she said. Goodbye 
light; goodbye civilization. And then that light began 
to go westward, and northward, and further westward, 
until it is going around on the other side of the great 
world, and coming back to where it started. My dear 
friends, the onl}^ solution for Asia and all the Oriental 
countries is the mission at Philippi, and the day is soon 
coming when Asia must have the cizilization of America 
and of the world, which came through the open door of 
Philippi. 

It seems to me I ought to ask of heaven tonight. Did 
it pay? Do you and I realize as we are sitting and stand- 
ing in this church tonight, that our forefathers were all 
in darkness? Do we realize what would have happened 
our forefathers if it hadn't been for the little mission in 
that city? And since that day millions and millions of 



778 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

Europeans have fallen asleep in Christ; since that day 
in our own dear land where the cross was planted when 
Christopher Columbus came here, millions and millions 
of our fathers and mothers, of our brothers and sisters, 
of our dear little children, have gone home ; and if I were 
to go up to heaven tonight and ask the question, Did that 
mission pay at Philippi? there would be a song going 
through the very corridors of heaven : Yes, it paid. If it 
had not been for that mission we would all have been in 
darkness. 

May we this day realize what it means to have a 
foreign mission in these days in a foreign land. May we 
realize how thankful we ought to be to God for the apostle 
Paul who brought the light to our fathers, that we are 
not heathen. You may talk all you please about the 
church of God and about the good old Bible, but I want 
you to understand that if you don't like the church and 
don't like the Bible, there are places in the world jet 
where you can find eiglit hundred millions of people who 
are living in total darkness, and they would be glad to 
eat you tomorrow morning for breakfast. Why don't you 
leave this country? Why don't you go out of this Chris- 
tian land? The answer comes from heaven tonight 
which says it pays. It pays to establish the Chris- 
tian church in any community. May God's rich blessing 
rest uxjon you all this evening, and may you thank God, 
and when the call comes to us to send forth the truth to 
other lands, have the spirit of the apostle Paul that says : 
I have not got the money, but I am willing to give myself, 
even though they put my feet in the stocks, and take off 
my head; I will give them the truth if it costs my life. 
That is the true missionary spirit. May God bless these 
words to our eternal good. Amen. 

PRAYER. 

Dear Father in heaven, Thou God of Jacob, we thank Thee that 

Thou didst give through that dearly beloved Rachel a Benjamin to 

"this v^rorld ; and we thank Thee that Thou didst give through Jacob 

a Judah to the world; and through that man called Israel came forth 

the great Savior on the one hand, and the great apostle on the other. 



TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 779' 

And we thank Thee, heavenly Father, that Thou didst see fit in Thy 
Providence, to bring the apostle Paul over to Macedonia, and thereby 
open the door which has brought the Gospel light into our own country 
and into our own homes. Oh, do Thou make us all totally ashamed of 
ourselves tonight, if we have ever said one word against Christian mis- 
sions; if we. have ever said one word against the Holy Bible; if we 
have ever said one word against true Christian people; O God, make 
us heartily ashamed of ourselves, and help us tonight to give ourselves 
totally, just as we are, into the hands of a merciful Savior. Lord our 
God, do Thou bless the message of the day, and now as we are about 
to leave this house of God, may we go to our homes fully determined 
that every father and every mother, every son and every daughter and 
every servant shall be a child of God. O Father in heaven, have mercy 
on those families where children of the devil are sleeping in the beds 
of Christian people. O God, help that our prayers may come to Thy 
throne, asking, and seeking, and knocking, until the children of men 
shall be the children of God. All these favors we ask in the name of 
the blessed Savior who taught us to pray: 

Our Father who art in heaven ; Hallowed be Thy name ; Thy 
kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven; Give 
us this day our daily bread ; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us ; And lead us not into temptation ;_ 
But deliver us from evil; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power,, 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 

Was Paul Popular? 

Phil. 3:17-21. 

BRETHREN, be followers together 'of me, and mark them which 
walk so as ye have us for an ensample. (For many walk, of 
whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, 
that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ; whose end is destruc- 
tion, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is their shame, who 
mind earthly things.) For our conversation is in heaven; from whence 
also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change 
our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, 
according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things 
unto Himself. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved in Christ: 

If I were to ask you this evening who was one of the 
greatest men that ever lived, I think I could possibly get 
a large percentage to say the apostle Paul. Moses was a 
great man; so was Elijah; so was Daniel; so was John 
the Baptist; so was Dr. Luther; but it is a question 
whether there ever was a greater man in every respect 
than Saul of Tarsus, who after his conversion was called 
Paul. Now the question arises, if Paul was such a great 
man, was he popular? and the answer comes back, Yes, 
and No. Every great man among some people has been 
popular; among others he has been very unpopular. Was 
there ever a more unpopular man than Moses in the wil- 
derness at times? and yet he was one of the most popular 
of men at other times. Daniel was very unpopular when 
they put him into the lion's den, and yet he was a very 
popular man in Babylon. John the Baptist was a very 

780 



TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 781 

popular man when the people came from all sides to hear 
him preach down at the Jordan, and yet when he was 
put into prison and his head cut off at the request of the 
daughter of Herodias, he was a yery unpopular man. 
Luther was a very popular man. All Europe wanted to 
hear him, and yet he had to take his flight to the Wartburg 
to escape for his life. Paul was a very popular man 
among some people ; among others he was not. The ques- 
tion therefore this evening will be 

WAS PAUL POPULAR? 

And the answer will be : 

1. No. 
II. Yes. 

I. Notice that he was very unpopular. Satan hated 
him ; the world had no use for him ; the Jews did not love 
him ; and many professed Christians did not care for him. 

In Saul of Tarsus going to Damascus to persecute 
the Christians, we have as good a picture of a child of 
the devil as you can find. He was filled with wrath against 
the cliurch of God. His object was to catch Christians 
wherever he could and put them into prison. He was an 
honest man, but an unpopular man in the face of Chris- 
tianity and very popular with the devil. When, then, 
Christ called from the clouds and said : "Saul, Saul, why 
persecutest thou Me?'' and started him on the right path 
and showed him the folly of fighting against the true and 
living God, sent him to the street called Straight, and 
there sent the messenger to say, "Arise, and be baptized, 
and wash away thy sins," and the scales fell from his eyes, 
and he saw the real truth, and came out on the side of 
God, from that moment on he was very unpopular with 
the devil, and from that day on Satan persecuted Paul 
wherever he could, until, like his great Master, his life 
was given up. 

We find furthermore that Paul was very unpopular 
with the world at large. The world had no use for Paul 



782 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

when he became a Christian. When he came up on Mars 
Hill and saw there an altar to the Unknown God, and 
began to proclaim that unknown God as the true and 
living God, the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, the world 
had no use for him. The world said. We have our false 
gods and you try to cast them down; we have our notions 
about purity and you have got yours; we want to live a 
life of sin and lust and you condemn us; everything that 
we want to do is condemned by you, little Paul; we will 
take you and put you into prison, and whip you, and tie 
you, and see if we cannot get rid of you. The world said, 
Paul, you are a very unpopular man. 

And how about the Jews, his own people, did they 
not turn against him? Why did Paul become the mis- 
sionary to the heathen? Because his own people would 
have nothing to do with him; they would refuse to hear 
him; it made them angry, and many a Jew today yet has 
no use for Paul because he left their religion and be- 
came a follower of Jesus Christ. 

And how about his own followers? How about the 
professed Christians of that day? Even they did not al- 
ways agree with Paul. Why could he not walk hand in 
hand with the apostles? Because some of them got jealous 
of him; some of them had no use for him; some did not 
trust him; and so it came to pass that even those people 
in the church of God many a time did not live as Paul 
wanted them to live, and moved him to tears; and there- 
fore he wrote in this beautiful letter to the Philippians 
these words : "Brethren, be followers together of me, and 
mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample. 
(For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now 
tell you even weeping, that they are tlie enemies of the 
cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose God is 
their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind 
earthly things. ) '' He was not speaking here of the enemies 
of Christ, the world, the followers of the devil; he was 
speaking here of professed Christians who pretend to be 
folloAvers of Christ, and instead of being friends, they 
are enemies of the cross. Why? Because they do not 
walk in the footprints of Jesus who died on that cross. 



TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 783 

Oh, how it hurt Paul to be unpopular among a people who 
called themselves Christians! And what was their trou- 
ble? Instead of going on the narrow way that leads to 
heaven, they were going on the broad way that leads to 
destruction. Instead of having their bodies and their 
souls saved, they were children of the devil, and the 
church hypocrites pretended to be followers of Christ 
Avhen they were not. He says, "whose end is destruc- 
tion.'' What more can befall any child of the devil than 
to go to destruction? And yet Paul saw some men in 
the church of God, walking around in the world, pretend- 
ing to be followers of the great Master when they were 
not, and they moved him to tears. He saw some there 
who thought a great deal more of their ow^n physical wants 
than they did of their spiritual wants. There were people 
in those days who cared far less for the Lord's Supper 
than they did for a good lunch ; whose only question was, 
Where can we go next and have a real good time? When 
the Word of God was being preached you could not see 
them, but if there would be a picnic, a lunch, plenty to 
eat and drink, they would be there; they never failed; 
and these people had very little use for Paul; and Paul 
had very little use for their Christianity; and when Paul 
Avas sitting in that prison and he thought of those peo- 
ple, he said to himself: I know why you make a god of 
your stomach; because it has no ears to hear; it has no 
eyes to see; and you are only thinking of how you are 
going to satisfy your own personal wants, like any other 
heathen; you are not a child of God. 

How often it happens in these days that we have peo- 
ple who are always at supper; they never fail; but are 
they at the Lord's Supper? They never fail to be working 
in the kitchen, but will you find them with a hymn-book 
and a prayer in God's house? And isn't it very unpopular 
for a man of God when he stops to think of those people; 
and isn't it a very unfortunate thing that people should 
call themselves Christians and always be found where 
there is soup, but never to be found where there is any 
meat; always to be found where there is a good, merry 
time, but never to be found where they can worship with 



784 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

God's people and approach the throne on high? These 
things moved Paul to tears and made him very unpopular 
even in his day. 

"Whose glory is their shame." Some people seem to 
be ashamed of Christ; ashamed to pray; ashamed to wor- 
ship; ashamed- to go to Sunday School; ashamed to study 
God's Holy Word; ashamed to have sacred pictures in 
the home; but they are not ashamed to live a life of sin 
and a life of lust; ashamed to be found with God's people,, 
but not ashamed to be f ouod with the world ; giving glory 
to their shame, but never giving glory to God. And do 
you suppose a man of God could ever be popular among 
such people? How could he? 

"Who mind earthly things." The minds of some peo- 
ple are like the minds of some animals. There is an ani- 
mal walking around in the world on four feet instead of 
two, with big flap ears covering his eyes, looking on the 
ground, but that animal seldom looks up; and there are 
some people who never seem to look up at all ; their whole 
object in life is to look down into the dirt and find more 
acorns, instead of looking up through the starry windows 
of heaven for that heavenly home on high ; they are ask- 
ing. Where can I get another quarter; Where can I get 
another dollar? Where can I get another farm? Where 
can I get more ground? Where can I get more dirt? 
Where can I become more earthly? "Who mind earthly 
things," never thinking of anything except just this world 
and a place to live instead of the heavenly home, when the 
fact is that we are only pilgrims here. And so Paul be- 
came very unpopular among some of the people who called 
themselves Christians. It so hurt him to think that they 
would not walk in the footprints of Jesus Christ, that 
while he was writing this letter, the tears were falling 
down on the parchment of that very message which was 
to become the message of God to a perishing world. 

II. Was Paul popular? I not only said No, but I 
now answer. Yes. He was popular in Christ's pure 
church; he was popular among the heavenly saints; he 
was popular among the holy angels; and he was popular 
with the true and living God. 



TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 785 

He was popular in the true church of God. The 
church of God, as you are Avell aware, is a divided church 

— a church militant, and a church triumphant. The 
church on earth is called a militant church, because it is 
a fighting' church, fighting for the truth, not with swords 
of steel, but with the sword of the Spirit, which is the 
Word of God. Among that class of people Paul was 
popular. There never was a more popular pastor in any 
congregation than Paul was in the little church at 
Philippi. Oh, how they loved their little pastor! And 
when he went forth as a missionary from one town to 
another, they followed him, and when he was down in the 
dark prison at Eome, they sent their messengers to com- 
fort him, to bring him collections, to help him along in 
his great battle; and Paul was so touched with their love 
and their liberality that he wrote them a letter, which 
became an inspired letter of God, to show the world how 
people should love a faithful man of God. He was pop- 
ular among true Christians. 

Not only was he popular among true Christians every- 
where, but he was popular also among those who have 
gone before, who have died in Christ Jesus. When Tay- 
lor Avrote those beautiful words — 

"I am but a stranger here, 

Heaven is my home ; 
Earth is a desert drear 
Heaven is my home. 
' Danger and sorrow stand 

Round me on every hand, 
Heaven is my Father-land, 
Heaven is my home. 

What though the tempests rage, 

Heaven is my home ; 
Short is my pilgrimage, 

- Heaven is my home. 
And time's wild wintry blast, 
Soon shall be overpast, 

I shall reach home at last. 
Heaven is my home. 

= 50 



786 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

Therefore I murmur not; 

Heaven is my home; 
Whate'er my earthly lot,- 

Heaven is my home. 
And I shall surely stand 
There at my Lord's right hand. 
Heaven is my Father-land; 

Heaven is my home. — 

I say when he wrote these words he must have had 
the spirit of an apostle Paul who sat down in the prison 
at Rome and wrote these memorable words: "For our 
conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for 
the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.'' Paul was popular not 
only among the true Christians on earth, in the church 
militant, but he must have been very popular among the 
saints on high. It seems to me if the little child shall 
behold the Father's face in heaven and see the joy which 
is to be found when a man on earth repents, surely our 
dear ones must be able to look down and see what is 
going on here in this world ; and if they can see and know 
what is going on here, how popular Paul must have been 
that day when he was starting out to make known the 
Savior to a great world. Oh, how popular he must have 
been in the estimation of Abraham, to whom the promise 
of Christ was made. How popular he must have been in 
the estimation of Jacob, and of Isaac, and of the prophets 
of old. How popular he must have been in the eyes of 
John the Baptist, who had gone before, and had told the 
rest, Paul is coming; I am here now, and down there he 
is fighting the very battles that I began. 

He was not only popular among all the saints, but 
he must have been popular in that day among the holy 
angels, for you will remember that the apostle Paul when 
he went to Philippi was put into prison, his feet fastened 
in the stocks, and there the angel of God went and shook 
that prison and loosed him, with all the other prisoners, 
and informed him by Providence of the great fact that 
the angels of God were on his side. He must have been 
popular among those angels that sang when the Savior 
was born. He must have been popular with that angel 



TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 787 

that rolled the stone away from the Savior's grave. He 
must have been popular with that angel that stood by on 
Mount Olivet when Christ ascended on high, and told the 
apostles that as they saw the Savior go, He will come 
again. Those angels were watching Paul and were pleased 
with his work and went with him into prison or wherever 
he went. Oh, yes, Paul was popular. 

Not only was he popular among the holy angels, but 
he was a popular man with his God in heaven. That same 
God who loved Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, loved 
Paul, followed him wherever he went, because he was 
honest, and because he was so honest, converted him to 
the truth, and led him out into the world as one of the 
greatest missionaries the world has ever known. If there 
ever was a man in the world who was blessed by God 
from on high, it was Paul. Oh, God loved that little man, 
loved his work, prospered him wherever he went. I know 
at times people seem to think Paul's life was a failure. 
Sometimes when we read the life of this apostle we 
wonder whether his life was not a failure. Why should 
this little man be confined in that prison for two long 
years? Why should his life be cut short just at the time 
when he might have done so much good in the world ; when 
he might have been allowed to go over the world himself 
and be seen of people as the mighty missionary of God? 
But God's ways are not our ways; they are as much above 
our ways as the heavens are above the earth. And heaven 
is not simply a few miles away ; it is millions and millions 
of miles above us; and as those stars that we will look 
at tonight as we step out of this church, are millions of 
miles away, far beyond those stars is heaven, and away 
above those stars is the mind of God, and as far as it is 
above us, it is above our minds. And so let us not forget 
that God knew what he was doing. Paul was a greater 
man in the prison than he could have been outside. Had 
there not been some Providence that placed Paul behind 
those walls, we v/ould not have these epistles written and 
saturated with his tears, written with chains clanking 
upon his arms; we would not have had this great Book 
to-day being published in over three hundred languages 



788 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

and read all over the world. How could Paul have done 
outside of the prison what he did in the prison? How 
could the living Paul, with his head on, have preached 
as Paul with his head off did? ' How could he have 
preached with pen dipped in ink, as he did with pen 
dipped in his own blood? And so God knew what he was 
doing, and Paul was popular; and I believe that when 
he died a martyr, died and came home to heaven, that 
not only the saints on high, not only the holy angels, 
but God Himself said : Welcome, thou popular man, Paul ; 
I am glad that thou art here. 

Dear friends, in conclusion, let us learn tonight this 
great lesson, to be popular on the Judgment Day. That 
is the only kind of popularity that is worth anything. 
We find that the apostle Paul referred to that when he 
said: "Who shall change our vile body, that it may be 
fashioned like u'nto His glorious body, according to the 
working whereby He is able even to subdue all things 
unto Himself." PauFs body was not beautiful; it could 
not have been beautiful, after being whipped, and 
scourged, and stoned as he had been; after being penned 
down in these dark dungeons for years; I am sure any 
one would have said, There is a very homely little man; 
there is a body full of cuts and stripes; there is a man 
that has been wounded every inch of his body; Oh, how 
mutilated he seemed to be; but the apostle Peter did not 
forget one thing, that that little body of his would go 
down into the dust, returning' to the dust from whence 
it came; that the same Savior that ascended up on high 
in the presence of the apostles, higher and higher, and 
went home to the Father, had said : "Let not your hearts 
be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in Me." "In 
My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not 
so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for 
you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will 
come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I 
am, there ye may be also." And so Paul said, I am going 
to so live and so walk, and so ask you to follow with me 
that when at last our work on earth is done, and this 
vile body has been raised when Christ shall come again, 



TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 789 

that it may be a glorified body, and that on that day I 
may be popular with my God; and so he wrote these 
words of m}' text: ^'Brethren, be followers together of 
me, and mark them whicli walk so as ye have us for an 
ensample." 

There are two classes of people in this world; some 
are watched, and some are not. Some are going on the 
narrow way that leads to heaven, and others are not. How 
can a child of God go on two ways at the same time? How 
can a child of God go with these stomach worshippers, 
how can he go with peojDle that are going to destruction, 
and at the same time go on the narrow way that leads to 
heaven? No, says Paul, I will tell you how we have 
got to go. Here I am in the prison at Kome; over here 
are the great Alps; the^^ are in sight, and Avhen the trav- 
elers go over those great mountains, the guide takes a 
rope and ties it around his body, and then around the 
next, and the next, and the next, and so on, and when the 
guide goes ahead he says. Follow me; and the man be- 
hind him says. Follow me; and thus the man away at 
the rear, though he doesn't see the guide, follows him 
because he follows those that Avalk in his footsteps. So, 
says Paul, Christ is our great Leader ; I follow Him ; and 
I ask you Philippians to follow me, and together we 
will follow Him, and we will come home to Him, and we 
will be popular on that last great day. This is the only 
popularity worth having. May we all so live that when 
our last hour shall come, we may fall asleep in Jesus; 
and when we waken on the resurrection morning, we 
may be popular with the holy angels, popular with God, 
popular with the saints above ; perfectly popular in heaven 
iorever. This is my pra3^er. Amen. 



TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 

God Has Translated Us. 

Col. 1 :9-14. 

fOR this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease lo 
pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the 
knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding ; 
that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful 
in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God ; strength- 
ened with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience 
and longsuflfering with joyfulness; giving thanks unto the Father which 
hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in 
light; who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath 
translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son ; in whom we have 
redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Deal' Friends : 

We are taken back this evening into history at least 
nearly three thousand years, to a scene that never could 
have been forgotten by those Avho saw it. In some way 
God revealed to Elijah that his days on earth were now 
done. He started from the village of Gilgal down to 
Bethel. His dearest friend on earth, Elisha, was bound 
to go along; Elijah urged him to tarry, but he would not; 
I must stay with thee as long as I can. Then Elijah 
left Bethel and started down to Jericho, and told hii? 
friend to tarry; but Elisha said, No, I cannot tarry; I 
will go down to Jericho. Wherever they came the sons 
of the prophets seemed to know that Elijah's ascension 
day had come, and they said, Elisha, do you know your 
friend is 2:oin2: to leave you todav? His answer was, I 
know it, but hold your peace. At Jericho Elijah said, 

790 



TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 791 

You must tarry here, Elisha, until I go down to the Jor- 
dan; but Elisha said, No, I am going right along; and 
when they came to the Jordan Elijah took his mantle, 
struck the waters, and they divided, and on dry land 
they walked across on the other side. Fifty of the young 
men, theological students, went down to see what would 
happen, and on the other side they did not hear the 
sounds of the lioofs on the ethereal highway, but the 
chariot of lire was coming. Then Elijah said to Elisha, 
If you have any favor to ask, ask quickly. Then Elisha 
asked that friend of his that he might have a double por- 
tion of his spirit. Elijah said, If you see me when I ascend, 
that will be proof that your request is granted. And 
all at once the chariot of Hr'e comes and goes up- 
ward and Elijah leaves his friend. Elisha has gone just 
as far as he can. He looks up into the clouds, he sees 
those fiery horses gallo.ping toward heaven, and he cries 
out : "My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and 
the horsemen thereof!" But Elijah was translated to the 
home on high. 

The Apostle Paul down in the prison at Home has a 
vision. He sees a vision, not of man going from earth 
to heaven, but from the kingdom of darkness to the king- 
dom of light. The Apostle Paul, tied in that great prison 
by chains, Avould not allow his work to cease. Wherever 
he had an opportunity to win souls for Christ, he did it; 
and so one day he preached the Gospel to a man by the 
name of Epaphras, and that man was converted to Christ. 
He came from the city of Colosse, in Asia Minor, and he 
did just what every true Christian will do, when he 
found the difference between the kingdom of darkness 
and the kingdom of light, he went home and told his 
father, his mother and his neighbors how to be saved. 
How can a man be saved from darkness to light and 
keep his mouth closed? The result was that the Apostle 
Paul was preaching, in spite of the fact that he was in 
the prison, to the whole world. Whenever he converted 
a man to God, he sent him out to start a mission. This 
church at Colosse had faithful members in it, and Paul 
wrote this beautiful letter in order to show how he appre- 



792 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

ciated their good services to God, and to warn them of 
their mistakes. Now the Apostle Paul, I say, looked upon 
this transition from the kingdom of darkness to the king- 
dom of light as just as much a transition as it was for 
Elijah to go from earth to heaven in the chariot of fire, 
and I invite your attention this evening to this thought: 

GOD HAS TRANSLATED US. 

"Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and 
hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son." 
May the Holy Spirit this evening bring the chariot of 
fire into our souls and translate us from darkness to 
light, if we have not been translated before. Notice then : 

I. The kingdom in which we were. 
II. The kingdom in which we are. 
III. The wonderful translation. 

I. What is that kingdom in which we Avere? 

"Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness." 
It is not hard to understand what that kingdom is. It is 
a kingdom of darkness; it is a kingdom universal; and 
it is a kingdom powerful. 

When our first parents sinned there was a spiritual 
darkness in the world that was equal to death. If you 
were to step out of here today and find a man lying under 
the bright and shining sun, dead, you would not for a 
moment say that he is now beholding the light. A dead 
man cannot see the light. And yet we were told before 
the human race sinned that the moment man sinned he 
should die. When Adam and Eve committed that sin 
in the garden of Eden, though they lived bodily, they 
were spiritually dead; and then there came into this 
world not only the king of hell but the kingdom of hell. 
Oh, what darkness in the hearts of Adam and Eve when 
they went and hid themselves! What darkness of the 
human race when the image of God was lost! And from 
that day to this, my dear friends, there has been this 
kingdom of darkness. Why all these crimes in this 
world? Why all this murder? Why all this fornica- 



TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 793 

tion? Why all this adultery? Why all this theft and 
robbery? Why all this coveting? Why all this malice 
and hatred? Wh}^ all this fighting against things that 
are good and holy? There is no question about the why. 
There is a kingdom of darkness, and that kingdom is uni- 
versal. 

From the days of Adai:d and Eve until the present 
day there never has been a child of God who was not at 
one time in the kingdom of darkness; and if this great 
truth were known by every Protestant church, you would 
not find peoi3le fighting infant baptism; you would not 
find people saying that little children are born into the 
kingdom of heaven when it isn't true. When Jesus said 
to Nicodemus, a man must be born again, for that which 
is born of flesh is flesh, He there taught what the Scrip- 
ture teaches everj^where, and what every man ought to 
know, that unclean ^Darents cannot bring a sinless child 
into the world. Every child, therefore, born into this 
world in a natural state, is in a state of darkness, and 
only the grace of God can save any man. This state is 
universal. Only Christ has been born without sin. Two 
people were created without sin, but none but Christ 
was ever born sinless; therefore, before any one in all 
this world can ever come into heaven, he must come out 
of a kingdom of darkness universal. 

Then let us not imagine that it is an easy matter 
to come out of one kingdom into the other. There are 
young men today all over Europe that have been watch- 
ing their opportunity for years to escape their govern- 
ment. If it were an easy thing to leave a kingdom, 
there would be a million souls at the harbor of New York 
next week, but all over the kingdoms of foreign lands 
young men are watched, lest they escape the kingdom. 
And just so it is with regard to the kingdom of dark- 
ness. It is a powerful kingdom. ''Who hath delivered 
us from the power of darkness." If you want to under- 
stand the real power of darkness and of the king of this 
realm, you must look at the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. 
Remember that Satan is a powerful king, and remember 
that he is not going to let any one leave his kingdom 



794 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

without a battle. And when Jesus Christ, the Son of 
God Almighty, came to earth and assumed human flesh, 
became a child in the crib of Bethlehem, Satan said to 
Herod, Write an edict that every child two years old 
and under shall be killed. It was the determination of 
Satan that day to kill Christ. When he tempted the 
Lord Jesus and told Him on the pinnacle of the temple 
to cast Himself doAvn, it Avas Satan's object to have Christ 
commit suicide. When the Lard Jesus Christ began His 
ministry and publicly announced the great fact that He 
was now taking the great sin of the world on Himself, 
Satan said. If you become the representative of sin, then, 
sir, you have got to die. And I want to make a state- 
ment here that you might question, if you did not under- 
stand the power of the king of darkness, namely, that 
God Almighty Himself, the moment that He took the sin 
of the world on Himself, was compelled to die. Why? 
Because the kingdom of darkness is so powerful that no 
sin can escape it. When, therefore, Jesus is being whip- 
ped and scourged, it is Satan that is doing it. When 
Jesus Christ is having His hands, and His feet, and His 
breast pierced, it is the king of darkness that is doing 
the piercing. And when Jesus Christ was hanging on 
the cross for six long hours, and at last cried out, My 
God! My God! Why hast Thou forsaken Me? He was 
then virtually suif ering the agonies of hell and could not 
escape, and God the Father could not be present, because 
He had volunteered to become the sinners' substitute, and 
having become the sinners' substitute, Satan said, You 
have got to take what the sinner Avould take, and that 
is death. Death is the wages of sin and Christ could not 
escape it. When you behold the Lord God almighty 
dying on Calvary, and dead, and lying in the grave, there 
you see the power of the kingdom of darkness. Satan 
said. You have got to die. You are dead, and the victory 
is mine. 

That is the kingdom in which you and I were. How 
would you expect any infant to escape if there' were no 
Savior? How would you expect any man on earth to 



TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 795 

escape the kingdom of hell, if there were not some power 
from on high to help him? 

II. Then let us notice that we are now in the king- 
dom of light. ''Giving thanks unto the Father, which 
hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of 
the saints in light ; who hath delivered us from the power 
of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of 
His dear Son; in whom we have redemption through His 
blood, even the forgiveness of sins." 

The kingdom in which we are is, in the first place, 
a kingdom of light. Death is darkness; redemption is 
light. Jesus Christ is the Light of the world, and when 
Jesus Christ redeemed us on Calvary's hill. He brought 
sunshine to the souls of those that are in the kingdom 
of darkness; He showed them a kingdom in which there 
is no need for sun, moon and stars; a kingdom in which 
(jrod Himself is the Light of the world — the inheritance 
of the saints in light — teaching us very plainly that sal- 
vation is a free gift, and not anything that we merit. 
The moment, therefore, that a man is born again, he has 
sunshine in his soul, and Oh, what a light that is! Im- 
agine a man blind, and all at once God gives him light 
and he sees the world for the first time ; what a wonderful 
impression that would make on the man's soul. And just 
so a man living in the kingdom of darkness, under the 
dominion of sin and of Satan, in a state of damnation, 
when he hears the Gospel and sees the light of salvation, 
sees a sunrise in iiis soul that shows him the light of 
the new kingdom. 

This is not only a kingdom of light, but a kingdom 
of love. In the margin of the Bible we find not only 
these words, "the kingdom of His dear Son," but a better 
translation, ''in the kingdom of the Son of His love." 
God is love, and God so loved the world that He gave 
His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, 
shall not perish but have everlasting life. When Jesus 
Christ died on Calvary, it was love that was dying; it 
was God's love that could not help but pour itself out 
for us, that we might know what it means to be loved 
by a loving God. Love would make sacrifices, and for 



796 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

that reason the Lamb of God could not do otherwise. 
He so loved us that He could not simply say, I love you, 
but He said, Here is My life; here is My suffering; here 
is My agony in hell; here is My death, that you may 
know that the kingdom into which I wish to translate 
you is a kingdom of love. Love, my friends, is going 
to conquer the Avorld. Love is the greatest power that 
we can find. Yesterday as I was walking along the street 
I saw a little girl broken-hearted. Oh, she cried as if 
her very heart were breaking. I did not know whose 
little girl it was, but I said, "What is the matter, my lit- 
tle darling?^' "Well, I bought this beautiful plate and 
fell down and broke it, and they will not take it back.'- 
I knew what was coming. She had a father and mother 
at home who would have whipped her severely if she had 
come with that broken plate. And so a friend stepped 
up to her and said, "Just take j^our broken plate and 
throw it in the alley; here are fifteen cents, go and get 
another one." The little child said, "Don't do that.'' 
"Just go and get another one and say nothing about it." 
She wiped her tears away and started off, as happy a 
little girl as ever walked on the streets. What was it 
that made her happj^? The fact that some one had 
enough love for her to take her out of her trouble. There 
is no power on earth like love. This thing of saying. 
Don't worry, if you have nothing to eat, nothing to wear, 
does not amount to anything. The thing to do is to 
keep your mouth closed and hand the man a suit of 
clothing; do not say very much, but give him something 
to eat. Yes, love is the greatest power in the world, and 
God is love. And now if you want to get into the king- 
dom of love you have got to be a Christian ; you have got 
to come out on God's side, and get out of the kingdom of 
darkness, for remember, that although Satan says. Come 
on, eat, drink and be merry come on and have a good 
time, come on and obey the voice of lust and sow your 
wild oats and do not live this narrow life of the Chris- 
tian it is the love of the butcher that takes the fat ox to 
the stall to kill him. Remember when Satan offers you 
anything that might seem like good, it is that he might 



I 



TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 797 

bring you down to death. There is no love in the king- 
dom of darkness, and all love is to be found in the king- 
dom of light. 

This is not only a kingdom of love and of light, but 
it is a kingdom of life. ^'In whom we have redemption 
through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins." Well 
has Dr. Luther said of man, in his explanation in the 
catechism, that where there is forgiveness of sins there 
is life and salvation. Whenever, therefore, you have the 
promise that by doing so and so you have forgiveness of 
sins, remember that you are in the kingdom of life, and 
the kingdom of life wants you to live. And when Satan, 
that powerful being, demanded that our Substitute, who 
took our sins upon Him, should suffer death, he suc- 
ceeded, but there was one thing Satan did not under- 
stand that that very death of Christ was our redemption ; 
he did not understand that he himself was doing what 
he never wanted to do, namely, saving the world by cru- 
cifying Christ. Did you ever stop to think that God 
almighty made that fallen angel, Satan, help save you 
and me? Did it ever occur to you that the King of kings 
and Lord of lords, took the powerful king of darkness 
and said. You have got to stab Me in the breast, you have 
got to drive the nails into My hands and into My feet; 
you have got to lay Me down in the grave, in order that I 
can rise from the dead and conquer you forever, and give 
victory to the children of God? Oh, my dear friends, we 
have got a powerful king in our Savior Jesus Christ, who 
conquered death and the grave on Easter morning; and 
the song of the great kingdom of light says to the world : 
Believe in Christ; forsake your sins and walk in His 
path and you shall have life everlasting, the forgiveness 
of sins. 

III. And so, my dear friends, you see the difference 
betAveen the kingdom of darkness in which we were, and 
the kingdom of light in which we are, and now let us 
notice the wonderful translation. 

Elijah was one hour down in the Holy Land, along 
the Jordan; the next moment he was going up by the 



798 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

fiery chariot and horses of fire into heaven; another 
moment he is up home. He has been translated. Thus 
you and I have had a wonderful translation from the 
kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, and if 
there is one in this house this morning who is still under 
the dominion of sin, under the dominion of Satan, who 
is living in the darkness of damnation, Oh, may the 
chariot of fire come down from on high this day and 
translate you into the kingdom of His eternal light. 
When God translated Elijah He came in a chariot. Did 
you ever stop to think that God is coming to you and to 
me in the chariot of the means of grace every day? Paul 
recognized that fact when he said: "For this cause we 
also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for 
you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowl- 
edge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understand- 
ing; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all 
pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increas- 
ing in the knowledge of God.'' Notice what stirred the 
apostle to prayer is knowing the Word of God and 
knowing God himself. How does a man know the will 
of God? He knows the will of God by reading His will. 
If I would want to know your will, I would say, Hand 
over your will and I will read it. Every day when you 
are talking about the Bible you speak of the Old Testa- 
ment, but testament is will; the New Testament is the 
new will of God, and the Old Will and the New Will 
make up the knowledge of God, and in this Word we 
find out His will. How does God translate a man out of 
darkness into light? He comes in the chariot of His 
Word. He comes through the means of grace. "How 
shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?" 
When, therefore, you hear God's Word, I would have 
you to understand that it is just as wonderful as when 
God came in a chariot of fire and said, Elijah, now heav- 
enward! That is the call of God this morning through 
His Bible. 

Why do you suppose we have these services every 
Sunday morning and every Sunday evening? Simply as 
a place to go? No. God wants men rescued from death 



TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 799 

unto eternal life; God wants men translated, and He 
comes through His Word and through His Holy Sacra- 
ments and says : I am here to lift you up. And that is 
why we want our little children baptized ; and that is why 
we want old sinners who have not been baptized, given to 
their God in the covenant. A man cannot belong to two 
kingdoms at the same time. When a man comes here to 
the polls to vote, he cannot vote as a subject of Germany 
and also as a subject of our country. Before you can vote 
in this country you have got to become a citizen of this 
country and renounce the government from which you 
came ; and God demands nothing less, and for that reason, 
when we come out of the kingdom of darkness into the 
kingdom of light, God comes to us and says: Will you 
renounce the devil and all his works and Avays? and the 
answer is, Yes, I renounce; and you cannot be baptized 
until you say that ; you have no right to be baptized before 
you say that ; a man cannot be a citizen of the kingdom of 
hell and a citizen of the kingdom of light at the same time; 
so God comes through His Word in Holy Baptism and 
says, This is not only Avater, but it is my chariot, the Word 
of God, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of 
the Holy Ghost; will you renounce tlie dcAdl? Will you 
renounce his Avorks; Avill you renounce his AA^ays? Yes, 
I renounce. Then come up higher. A translation Avonder- 
ful, through the means of grace. 

He comes to you in the Lord's Supper, and it is the 
same old chariot, God's Holy Word. "Take, eat, this is 
My body; take, drink, this is My blood given and shed for 
you for the remission of sins." For the remission of your 
sins in the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. 
Come and eat with Me and I Avith you, and I Avill give My- 
self to you for your forgiAcness; come into the chariot, I 
will take you higher. That is the chariot Avith which God 
comes to us to translate us — the means of grace. 

And what about those fiery horses? Well, my friends, 
God comes to us also Avith His fiery horses. Remember on 
the day of Pentecost, Avhen that great multitude accepted 
the fiery truth that Jesus is the Messiah, then came the 
Holy Spirit like fiery tongues and sat upon the disciples, 



800 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

and they spake with different tongues, and they all con- 
fessed Christ and came into the kingdom of life. Remem- 
ber, my friends, that the Holy Spirit is still in our midst. 
"Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy 
Ghost." You never can find the horses hitched away 
from the chariot, but they are hitched together; and 
just so the Holy Spirit is ever connected with His 
Word. You cannot hear one sermon ; you cannot take one 
promise of God, without having the horses of fire, the Holy 
Spirit, pleading w^ith you that you might come into the 
realm of light ; and if you and I today are children of God, 
it is because this great chariot has been drawn by the fiery- 
steeds of the Holy Spirit. It is He that calls; it is He 
that gathers ; it is He that enlightens ; it is He that sanc- 
tifies and keeps us. 

And what about the mantle that fell from the should- 
ers of Elijah and was picked up by Elisha? Elisha, you 
will remember, picked up the mantle and walked back to 
the river Jordan and said, Now God of Elijah, give me his 
spirit! and he struck the waters, and they divided, and 
he walked home again to establish the mighty church of 
God more fully in that land. Elijah did not take his 
mantle with him because he was going up now for a higher 
service. "That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto 
all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and in- 
creasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all 
might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience 
and long suffering with joyfulness; giving thanks unto 
the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of 
the inheritance of the saints in light." The apostle Paul 
here recognized the fact that when a man comes out of the 
kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, that he 
does not come into a kingdom of laziness; he must come 
into a kingdom that means service — "every good work ;" 
not a kingdom of simply being a little child and never 
growing — "increasing in the knowledge of God ; strength- 
ened with all might according to His glorious power." 
Wlien, therefore, we come out of the kingdom of darkness 
into the kingdom of light, it becomes our duty to throw 
the mantle of the old kingdom away, and come into the 



TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER TRLNITY. 801 

new kingdom with our mantles thrown off, as Elijah did, 
and go into the greater service. You remember when 
Jesus Christ was on the mountain of Transfiguration, not 
only was Moses there, but Elijah, the man that entered 
into heaven in the chariot of fire, without his mantle. He 
wanted to look into these things ; he wanted to see the Re- 
deemer; he wanted to see the work go on; and I do not 
doubt for a single moment but that all the saints in 
heaven today are interested in the work that has been done 
here on earth for the extension of Christ's kingdom. Do 
you suppose that your glorious mother on high does not 
care whether father is still living in the realm of dark- 
ness? Do you suppose that your own little babe in heaven 
does not care today if you are living on earth a child of 
the devil? Do you suppose that all the saints on high 
that have seen the glories of the kingdom of light are sat- 
isfied that we as a Christian church sit down and never 
do anything for the extension of God's kingdom? The cry 
from heaven comes back through the Word of God, which 
is the chariot of fire, and says : Work ! Throw off your 
mantle! Work, and be strengthened with the power of 
His might, and serve your God! 

Oh, my dear friends, God says. Go — work — today 
— in My vineyard. Are we working as we ought? Are 
we showing by our own lives that we are in the kingdom 
of light? If I had been deathly sick with consumption 
and some physician had come to my bed and given me 
a medicine that cured me, I Avould make it my business 
to hunt up every consumptive and tell him of the doctor 
that helped me; I could not help it. If God has trans- 
lated us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom 
of light with the fiery chariot of the Holy Spirit through 
the means of grace, and now we are in this kingdom, how 
can we rest and let all our citizens and neighbors in all 
the other parts of the world live on in darkness, and do 
nothing? I am m_ore and more convinced in the last 
months of my ministry that unless a man is a missionary 
from one side of the globe to the other, that unless he is 
interested in the salvation of every man on earth, he lacks 

51 



802 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

the light that he ought to have as a true child of God. 
And do not forget that these things are growths. Paul 
says that we shall grow in the knowledge. I do not say 
that a man cannot be a Christian and not be a foreign 
missionar}^, but he cannot be a full grown Christian; he 
cannot be an intelligent Christian. Therefore, let our 
aim be to know more of God's Word, to know more of the 
history of the poor that are living in darkness, to know 
more of the glories of the Christian life, and to push for- 
ward, with every prayer and with every gift, and with 
every speech, until all who are around us will be won for 
the kingdom of life. May God bless this message this 
evening and translate you into that glorious kingdom of 
His service. 

PRAYER. 

O Father in heaven, Thou who dost come to us in the channels 
that have been prescribed in Thy Holy Will; Thou who hast sent Thine 
only Son, Jesus Christ, into the world, to conquer death and all hell, 
and the king of darkness, Thou who hast brought to us the kingdom 
of light, and who art willing to take us into Thy covenant and promise, 
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; O Father, receive our 
thanks this morning for this kingdom, and we pray Thee that Thou 
wilt pour into our hearts and souls a desire to serve Thee as if our 
very salvation depended upon what we do, and yet give us such an 
appreciation of Thy grace that we may know the great truth that we are 
saved, not by our works, but alone by Thy great mercy. O Father, 
go with us through the coming week; go with us through life, and may 
we in the future serve Thee as we never did before; and may we grow 
day by day as we are approaching death, as we are approaching the 
Judgment, and the great kingdom eternal. Hear this our prayer : We 
ask it in the name of Jesus, who taught us to pray: 

Our Father, who art in heaven ; Hallowed be Thy name ; Thy 
kingdom come ; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven ; Give 
us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our trespasser, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us ; And lead us not into temptation ; 
But deliver us from evil ; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



THANKSGIVING DAY. 



Psalm 92:1. 



T is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises 
unto Thy name, O most high. 



I know of no more fitting introduction to the ad- 
dresses you shall hear to-day than to read the Proclama- 
tion of the President of the United States : 

THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION. 

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
A PROCLAMATION. 

When, nearly three centuries ago, the first settlers came to the 
country which has now become this great republic, they fronted not 
only hardship and privation, but terrible risk to their lives. In those 
grim years the custom grew of setting apart one day in each year for 
a special service of thanksgiving to the Almighty for preserving the 
people through the changing seasons. 

The custom has now become national and hallowed by immemorial 
usage. We live in easier and more plentiful times than our forefathers, 
the men who, with rugged strength, faced the rugged days ; and yet the 
dangers to national life are quite as great now as at any previous time 
in our history. 

It is eminently fitting that once a year our people should set apart 
a day for praise and thanksgiving to the Giver of Good, and, at the 
same time, that they express their thankfulness for the abundant mer- 
cies received, should manfully acknowledge their shortcomings and pledge 
themselves solemnly and in good faith to strive to overcome them. 

During the last year we have been blessed with bountiful crops. 
Our business prosperity has been great. No other people has ever 
stood on as high a level of material well-being as ours now stands. 
We are not threatened by foes from without. 

The foes from whom we should pray to be delivered are our own 
passions, appetites and follies. 

Against these there is always need that we should war. 

Therefore, I now set apart Thursday, the 30th day of this Novem- 
ber, as a day of thanksgiving for the past and of prayer for the future, 

803 



804 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

and on that day I ask that throughout the land the people gather in 
their homes and places of worship, and in rendering thanks unto the 
Most High for the manifold blessings of the last year, consecrate them- 
selves to a life of cleanHness, honor and wisdom, so that this nation 
may do its alloted work on the earth in a manner worthy of those whc 
founded it and of those who preserved it. 

By Theodore Roosevelt. 

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the 
seal of the United States to be affixed. 

Done at the city of Washington this second day of November, in 
the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and five, and of the 
independence of the United States the one hundred and thirtieth. 

[Seal] Theodore Roosevelt. 

By the President, 

Elihu Root, 

Secretary of State. 



Beloved in Christ: 

The inter-church conference and federation held in 
Carnegie Hall, New York, the past month will he a grand 
success on the Judgment Day. God will show to the 
world the errors of many denominations. The great 
Church of the Reformation can never confederate with 
error of any kind; but the time has come that the great, 
grand, Lutheran Church of the United States should de- 
throne the popery that is found among a few of its Sy nod- 
ical leaders. The time has come that the great Lutheran 
bodies, not only of this country but of the world, with its 
one grand declaration of independence, the Augsburg Con- 
fession, should stand as a body and make itself felt all 
over the world. For three long years the ministers of the 
Lutheran Church of this city have been praying and la- 
boring for what we are pleased to see this morning, four 
congregations and one mission having their representa- 
tives together in one body, to obey the will of the great 
President of the United States, and the greater will of 
God, to come here to render thanks to Him. 



THANKSGIVING DAY. 805 



THANKS BE TO GOD. 



I. For this clay's selection. 

II. For His governing hand. 

III. For the blessings of the land. 

IV. For future protection. 

The theme is God's Word. The divisions are the sub- 
stance of the President's Proclamation. The ministers of 
God are here to give you short addresses, and may the 
Holy Spirit bless them. 

Dr. Markley, the pastor of St. Paul's Lutheran Church 
will now show you why we should thank God 

For This Day^s Selection, 

With thanksgiving the foundations of the earth were 
laid, when the morning stars sang together and all the 
sons of God shouted for joy; Avith thanksgiving this earth 
shall pass away and the new heaven and the new earth 
shall be introduced, when all the redeemed saints of God 
in glory shall sing Hallelujah! Honor, and glory, and 
power, and majesty, belong unto our Lord! Hallelujah^ 
for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth! Between that 
first-day of thanksgiving and that last day of thanksgiving, 
there have been many times and many days of thanks- 
giving. When Melchizedek went out to meet victorious 
Abraham returning from the battle, and prepared him a 
feast, it was a thanksgiving day unto God for deliverance 
and for victory. When God gave the Jews His holy law, 
there was one day at least of the three great feasts set 
apart as a special day of thanksgiving unto the Lord. 
When we come down to the Christian Church, the Lord's 
Supper in one of its meanings and intents, as it was also 
called in the earliest church, is a feast of thanksgiving, 
or eucharist. The Christian Church always and every- 
where has felt that it is appropriately proper that at the 
ingathering of the harvest there should be a day, a fes- 
tival, of thanksgiving. Let us turn, however, especially 
to America, and see how we have come to this day in 
which we gather to thank our God. 



806 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

The Pilgrim Fathers landed on the 21st day of No- 
vember, 1620, in this country. The first winter was a 
hard one. The Indians received them kindly in the cold 
year, showed them how to plant their Indian corn, 
and, remarkably, they showed them how to plant 
alongside of each grain of Indian corn also a herring 
to fertilize the corn, that it might bring forth in 
abundance. The next fall, in 1621, we find that 
one of those men wrote home to an acquaintance 
saying: "We planted about twenty acres of Indian 
corn. Our Indian corn grew well, God be praised. Our 
barley it grew moderately well, but our beans were not 
worth the gathering. After the harvest had been gath- 
ered, Governor Bradford sent men with their fowling 
pieces out into the wilderness to bring back game for the 
celebration of a thanksgiving day." So richly did they 
return, says this letter, that for one week they kept a 
feast; they invited the Indians. Tlie great Chief Massasoit, 
with ninety of his braves, came and spent a week with 
them. They celebrated it with games, with races, with 
drillings of arms and of their little band of twenty sol- 
diers. It was a model and pattern of the modern thanks- 
giving day, with its games, as we find it most popular in 
the country to-day. 

Next to that, however, let us be grateful and thankful 
for this fact. It is due to the Lutherans and to the Lu- 
theran Church to introduce and to give to this Thianks- 
giving day its special intent and its religious meaning. 
The Lutherans — whether they were the Swedes that came 
under Gustavus Adolphus and landed on the shores of 
Delaware, and straightway raised up their church to re- 
turn thanks to God ; or the Salzburgers, who landed down 
in Georgia, and called their church Ebenezer — Hitherto 
the Lord hath led us; or the Germans from the Father- 
land who came to Pennsylvania and who everywhere ob- 
served their days of harvest feasts and of ingatherings — 
everywhere the Lutherans of all nationalities introduced 
a thanksgiving day of worship and prayer. 

And it is this spirit that has brought so many of us 
together here this day. This national thanksgiving pro- 



THANKSGIVING DAY. 807 

clamation was issued by Washington, in February of 1795. 
It sounds exceedingly natural, for this reason probably, 
because it has been taken as the style and pattern of all 
succeeding presidents' proclamations. Let me read you 
simply a few selections from it: 

"When we review the calamities which afflict so many 
nations, the present condition of the United States 
affords much matter of consolation and satisfaction. . . 
The unexampled prosperity of all classes of our citizens 
are circumstances which peculiarly mark our situation 
with indications of the Divine beneficence toward us. . . 
Deeply penetrated with these sentiments, I, George Wash- 
ington, President of these United States, do recommend 
to all religious societies and denominations, and to all 
persons whomsoever in these United States, to set apart 
and observe February 19th as a day of public thanks- 
giving and prayer, and on that day to meet together and 
render sincere and hearty thanks to the great Ruler of 
nations for the manifest and signal mercies which have 
distinguished our lot.'' And then he added to it the usual 
signature which we find added to the proclamations of 
the day. 

However, Thanksgiving Day was not a regular insti- 
tution until 1863, when President Lincoln, after the great 
battle of Gettysburg which preserved the Union of these 
United States, issued a proclamation just about the anni- 
versary of his mother's death, that was so often in his 
heart, and called the United States to thank God for what 
God had done for the Union army and for the preserva- 
tion of this country. From that day on. Thanksgiving 
Day has been a national institution and a custom, and it 
is one of the days that we would not like to lose out of 
our lives, that we would not like to lose out of our cus- 
toms, or out of the annual holidays which come to our 
people and to our country. But who would have thought 
when Lincoln, a little over forty years ago, issued this 
proclamation, that to-day, or that in so brief a time, the 
presidential thanksgiving proclamation would sound 
around the whole earth? 

We give thanks not only fqr a preserved and united 



808 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

country, but thanks for a growing and outspread country. 
In the South Seas, Puerto Rico, in the heart of the Pa- 
cific Ocean the Hawaii Islands, and at the gate of the 
Orient, the Philippines, today has been read the same 
proclamation that sounds in your ears. A nation's thanks- 
giving, great and glorious, is the thought. Almost one 
hundred million people are today reminded by their chief 
magistrate that to the Supreme Ruler, to the God above 
us all, we owe thanks and tribute of praise for what 
He has done for us in things temporal; and much more 
ought we to render, in things spiritual, a national thanks- 
giving for the United States of America. 

These United States by right belong to God and are 
God's. When Columbus landed on those southern islands, 
as he sat foot from the Santa Maria on the sands of the 
shore, he planted a cross; when the next ship came and 
landed, another cross Avas planted by its side; and after 
the Pinta had come, the Nina came, and a third cross 
was raised on the other side of the one Columbus placed 
there. The three crosses of Calvary consecrated the first 
landing of the white man upon American soil. It be- 
longs to Christ, redeemed by His blood. When the Pil- 
grim Fathers landed they fell upon their knees in prayer 
and thanksgiving to God. When the Lutherans came, the 
Swedes brought the Gospel and the catechism and gave 
it to the Indians in their own tongue. When the Salz- 
burgers came, they came that they might find liberty of 
conscience. When the Germans of Saxony came to the 
west, they came to escape the persecutions of the home 
land. And so we may well say that America, by every 
consecration, belongs to God. We owe Him thanks. 

What will we do with it? That is the important ques- 
tion. When God gave richly to the rich fool he said, I 
will eat, drink, and be merry, for I have much goods laid 
up for man}^ days. He was a fool. A father gives to his 
little son a book, a dollar, and an apple. If he finds him 
reading the book he will make a minister of the Gospel 
of him; if he finds him playing with the dollar, he will 
make a banker or merchant of him; if he finds him eat- 
ing the apple he will nfake him a farmer. The father 



THANKSGIVING DAY. 809 

comes into the room and finds him sitting on the book, 
eating the apple, with the dollar in his pocket. What 
did he make of him? What will you do with the things 
God has given you? How will you render your thanks to 
Him this day? 

II. God's hand in history is a wonderful study. His 
hand has done wonderful things in our land the past 
year. Dr. Baltzly, pastor of St. Luke's Lutheran Church, 
will now show us why we should thank God 

FOR HIS GOVERNING HAND. 

The second thought that comes from the proclamation 
of the President, I wish to state thus : 

National Causes foj^ Thanksgiving. 

A question that has recently received a round of vig- 
orous discussion is: Is the United States a Christian na- 
tion? The ablest champion of the affirmative is found 
in none other person than the renowned David J. Brewer, 
the Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United 
States. Of such importance has he regarded this ques- 
tion, and so intensely interested has he been in the an- 
swer, that he has given himself to a defense of it, and 
written a book which he has styled "The United States a 
Christian Nation." Although the government as a nation, 
as a legal organization, is independent of religion, he 
says, "there is nowhere a repudiation of Christianity as 
one of the institutions and benedictions of society. There 
is no charter or constitution in this country which is 
either infidel, agnostic, or anti-Christian. In the avowed 
separation of Church and State there is recognized one 
of the fundamental principles of Christian religion, 
namely, the independence of the individual to bear his 
distinct relation between himself and his Maker, regard- 
less of human government.'' He points out this fact, that 
our Christianity was a primary cause of the first settle- 
ment on our shores; that the organic instruments, char- 
ters, and constitutions of the colonies were filled with 
abundant recognitions of Christianity as the controlling 
factor in the life of the people; that in one of them at 



810 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

least it was in terms declared the established religion. 
You will no doubt be surprised to know that in the Con- 
stitution of South Carolina of 1778 it was declared that 
the Christian protestant religion should be demanded and 
is hereby constituted and declared to be the established 
religion of this State. And, further, ^'that no agreement 
or union of men upon pretense of religion shall be en- 
titled to become incorporated and regarded as a church 
of the established religion of State, without agreeing and 
subscribing to the book of Five Articles, the Third and 
Fourth of which are that the Christian religion is the 
true religion; that the Holy Scriptures of the Old and 
New Testaments are of Divine inspiration and are the 
rule of faith and practice. In several other colonies the 
furthering of Christianity was stated to be one of the 
purposes of the government; in many, faith in it was a 
condition of holding office; in some, authority was given 
to the legislature to make its support a public charge; 
in nearly all the constitutions there has been an express 
recognition of the sanctity of the Christian Sunday; the 
God of the Bible is appealed to again and again. Sunday 
laws have been enacted and enforced in most of the 
colonies and States. About one-third of the population 
are avowedly Christian and communicants of some Chris- 
tian organization ; there are sitting accommodations in the 
churches for nearly two-thirds; educational institutions 
are largely under the control of Christian denominations^ 
and even in those which, in obedience to the rule of sep- 
aration between Church and State, are secular in their 
organization, the principles of Christianity are uniformly 
recognized. By these and other evidences I claim to have 
shown that the calling of this republic a Christian nation 
is not a mere pretense, but the recognition of a historical, 
legal, and social truth.'' 

And now comes the last, and to me the greatest evi- 
dence that this is, after all, a Christian country — the 
fact that we have a national Thanksgiving; the fact that 
the Chief Executive of our nation has placed the great 
seal of the greatest government on earth upon a declara- 
tion which calls the people of our nation to the recogni- 



THANKSGIVING DAY. 811 

tion of God as the Divine Giver of all things. And, my 
dear friends, such a declaration as that would never have 
been inspired, except in the heart of a man who himself 
was a Christian, and would never have been issued to a 
people who themselves were not of Christian spirit. We, 
as Christians, have reason to-day to thank Almighty God 
from the depths of our souls that we are in a nation where 
the God of all the earth is thus recognized by the nation 
and its Executive. It is also more than a matter of simple 
gratification that we have in the highest Court of this 
country a man who has seen fit to express himself in de- 
fense of the Christian religion. It is, I say, a matter 
of gratification that we have a man in the court of last 
resort of such a character. And then it should be a mat- 
ter of general thanksgiving that we have as our Chief 
Executive not merely a passive Christian, but a preacher 
and a practitioner of righteousness; a man who has risen 
above the small confines of party politics, who has become 
the president of the people of our country. It is refresh- 
ing to have such a man as Theodore Roosevelt at the head 
of our nation, and we should thank God that He has over- 
ridden the plans and prejudices of politicians, and placed 
as the standard bearer of our country such a splendid 
type of manhood. 

And then, too, we should be thankful this morning 
for the part that our government has had in the matter of 
peace, during the past year. One of the bloodiest wars 
of modern times was being fought away over yonder on 
the eastern side of this globe, and the time came when it 
seemed to be opportune to put an end to it ; but the King 
of England was helpless ; the Emperor of Germany dared 
not offer his services; the President of the French Re- 
public must keep silence; there Avas not a potentate on 
the earth who could speak, save the President of the 
United States; and, throwing himself and his abilities 
into the breach, he made bitter enemies friends. My dear 
friends, it is a matter of general and national thanks- 
giving that God has used our country for such a valuable 
service to mankind. 

Another matter for expression of gratitude to Al- 



812 THE ETERNAL EPTSTLE. 

mighty God is this : I believe it was in January, 1863, 
that that wonderful President of our country in those 
days, Abraham Lincoln, issued his Emancipation Procla- 
mation, whereb}^ he made every law-abiding citizen of this 
country, a free-born citizen. That was the second great 
declaration in the history of our country. It seems to 
me that we have a third great emancipation proclamation 
issued this year by the President of our country, and sanc- 
tioned by the people of our nation — the emancipation of 
tlie American voter! Far out in the west — in Utah — 
there has been that all-absorbing octopus, that fearful and 
dreaded calamity of Mormonism, and for the first time 
the voters of that state have risen up and have smitten 
that evil, and once already the Christian conception of 
right has prevailed. I am thankful, and we as a nation 
have reason to be thankful, that the time has come when 
the political party leader, it matters not what his ma- 
chine or his authority may have been, is helpless before 
the people who have risen to that high standard of being 
men v\iio think for themselves, and vote their conviction. 

And then, the last occasion which I may mention, for 
thanksgiving, is, that in this great State of Ohio, we have 
shown to the world what right is, and its power. What- 
ever may have been the real facts in the issue — I am 
not to discuss that — but whatever these facts may have 
been, the issue was made between the righteous element 
of our State and the unrighteous, and thanks be unto God 
today, the Church of Jesus Christ, awakened to her op- 
portunity and duty, stands the glorious victor. Praise be 
unto His excellent name, praise be unto the God of all, 
thit we have in this State shown to the world, that the 
Church of Jesus Christ will stand for right. What in- 
spiring causes we have for national thanksgiving! 

III. The President says in his proclamation: "Dur- 
ing the past year we have been blessed with a bountiful 
crop; our business prospects have been great; no other 
people has ever stood on as high a level of material well 
being as ours now stands. Brother Kellar, pastor of 
St. Matthew's Lutheran Church, will now show us why we 
should thank God 



THANKSGIVING DAY. 813 

FOR THE BLESSINGS OF THE LAND. 

"Thanks be to God for the blessings of the land" is 
evidenced in two particulars : 

I. In natural resources. 
II. In intellectual achievements. 

When the conqueror journeys through the land his 
paths drop blood. But standing as we do in the full blaze 
of God's Providence, we sing "Thou crownest the year 
with Thy goodness and Thy j)aths drop fatness." Our 
national heroes are far too often those who have ridden to 
victory over the fallen bodies of victims, and the hearts 
and tears of loved ones. But by a sharp and tender con- 
trast are the movements of Jehovah thro' the land, not 
in tracks of blood, but of fatness. The clouds are His 
chariots; He rides upon the heavens in the greatness of 
His strength; He moves in His excellency on the sky; 
and the wheel tracks of Jehovah are marked by the fat- 
ness which makes glad the earth. We have been too prone 
to sing: "The melancholy days have come, the saddest 
of the year." Beholding the year we say once more it 
is crowned with goodness. It is encircled with the smile 
of Jehovah. Do the frosts nip the leaves? It is after 
the warm sunshine has opened the bud into a blossom and 
mellowed the rich clusters into ripeness. Have we 
thought in these fall days that nature is dying? It is 
only the things of nature putting on their winter dress. 
Leaves exist for the sake of the fruit. When the clusters 
are gathered, why longer cumber the tree? This scorched 
and trodden earth needs a rest and the seasons come to 
call a halt upon the cruel forces that impoverish the 
earth. When, therefore, we say that the plants wither, 
the leaves fall and the grass dies, we are only proclaiming 
God's coronation on fruitful harvests and a well ordered 
universe of food. And whose heart does not well in 
thankfulness for the changing seasons? Plant life, animal 
life, your life, demands it. If any change were to take 
place in the seasons the whole order of nature would be 



814 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

disturbed. The conditions for the production of plant 
life would be thrown into utter confusion; the functions 
of plants would be entirely deranged and the whole 
vegetable kingdom would be thrown into instant decay 
and rapid extinction. Plants and man are closely re- 
lated. How has your life been sustained through the past 
years? By feeding upon the vegetable kingdom. And 
now look at the dependence of vegetation upon seasons 
of their present length. If the summer and autumn were 
much shorter the fruit would not have time to ripen. If 
they were much longer the trees would put forth a fresh 
suit of leaves and blossoms to be cut down by the frosts 
and freezes. If the year were twice or thrice its present 
length the tree would exhaust itself in the production of 
fruit, and the fruit itself would not be matured for the 
reason, among other things, that it needs the rest which 
Avinter gives. Even the strong hard trees of the forest 
need all the seasons of their present length. There is 
the spring time for the raising of the sap to develop the 
leaves and the growth of the wood; and there is the 
winter time when the sap goes down again and allows the 
wood thus formed to harden and withstand the storms 
and blasts. If the season were shorter the seed would 
not ripen ; if it were much longer the seed germ would 
die before the Spring for planting. These wonderful pro- 
visions are striking and interesting, but so commonplace 
that this is not the place to consider them in detail except 
to say that these great facts with reference to a well 
ordered solar system are simply unintelligible except by 
admitting into our conception an intelligent Author, who 
is God, of the organic and inorganic universe. And these 
fall days simply remind us that the earth has made 
another revolution. The great clock of eternity has struck 
another hour. The leaves have withered and died. The 
earth has frozen into a hard surface. But these are no 
melancholy days. It is God's coronation of goodness. We 
learn from these fall days that this planet, 25,000 miles 
in circumference, bearing on its surface a population of 
1,500 million of souls, with innumerable animals, count- 
less birds, and millions of fish has continued its mad flight 



THANKSGIVING DAY. 815 

through space, but held in perect orbit by the unseen hand 
of a Father. When we lie down to sleep at night the 
earth has not needed our watchfulness. Engulfed in 
darkness, all unconscious of the fearful rate at which we 
are moving, the fields have been just as fruitful and the 
seasons have returned in their proper time. And now 
comes the coronation of it all. In fruitful harvests, with 
a mild and gentle change from the heated season to the 
cold, man gathers the fruit of his toil and thanks God 
for the blessings of the land. 

Turn again to the progress of the world and thank 
God again for the blessings of the land. 

"We are living, we are dwelling, 

In a grand and awful time ; 
In an age on ages telling — 
To be living is sublime." 

With what kind of sickle did your father reap wheat? 
It was the same kind that Abraham used and with w^hich 
Ruth gleaned in the fruitful fields of Boaz. We need 
not go back to the year One in our thought to be thankful 
to-day. The last century alone produces evidence suf- 
ficient that we have outgrown the old methods and old 
tools. Progress in the last 100 years has written anew 
the maps of the world. When the last century began, 
the center of population was eighteen miles west of 
Baltimore, Md. Greater New York now contains four- 
fifths as many people as composed the whole republic 
100 years ago. In 1830 Chicago was an unsurveyed 
swamp. The plow of 1800 was a "crotch-drag;" the 
western plow of to-day is run by steam and turns eight 
furrows at a time. In 1800 Congress had no library; 
to-day it has the best in the world. Seventy years ago 
there were no public libraries in the world ; to-day there 
is scarcely a village or hamlet without one. A hundred 
years ago a man could not take a ride on a steam boat, 
he had never seen an electric light nor dreamed of an 
electric car; he could not cool himself at an electric 
fan, nor warm himself at a steam radiator. The last 
century began with 900,000 slaves ; it closed without any. 



81G THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

President Jefferson presided over a country of 900,000 
square miles ; President Roosevelt presides over a country 
of more than four and a half million square miles. And 
when we consider that during the last hundred years this 
American continent has been changed from a wilderness 
to a paradise, that the rumbling stage coach has been dis- 
placed by the lightning express, that the ignorance that 
abounded has been swept from our border by the en- 
lightenment of the public school, that Christianity has 
rooted out the prevalent belief of witch-craft, that four 
hundred colleges and universities have been founded and 
maintained, that homes for the orphans and asylums 
for the unfortunate have been reared, that industries 
flourish without limit, and that all the bonds of unity 
between man and man have been encouraged, and that we 
are living in a new and more glorious age — when we re- 
member these things we are made to thank God for His 
direction of human progress. And are these melancholy 
days? Hardly. Can you be a cynic when the streets 
swarm with children bearing books on their arms? Then 
go to China, or go to Africa. Live among the devotees of 
ancestral worship or the shiftlessly lazy lovers of ease. 
No greater cause for thanksgiving can be conceived of 
in a material way than in these agencies for the enlarge- 
ment of mental faculties and the enlistment of intellectual 
forces in a practical way. For that nation that does not 
provide well for the education of the youth is a doomed 
nation. It was ignorance enthroned that made tyranny 
possible. It was the dominance of ignorance that has 
already characterized too large a part of the world's 
history as the "Dark Ages." Gone forever are the days of 
chained intellect. The schools swarm with American 
citizens in embryo. In the Providence of God the op- 
portunities for learning are presented. The printing press 
hums with the growth of men's thought, the distribution 
of literature is made to every poor man's hut, the pulpit 
echoes forth the spiritual idea, become incarnate in a 
living witness, and on every platform stands the champion 
of human rights God-given ; and with the opportunity for 
knowledge and thought come also the privileges of light 



THANKSGIVING DAY. 817 

and of life until under the influence of knowledge the 
human soul is unfolding its powers as the warm sunshine 
opens the hard shell of the seed's life. 

Be thankful then for a land that is productive; a 
land with the hill and the valley, rivers and lakes, a land 
of sunshine and rain, heat and cold, summer and winter. 
Be thankful for the changing seasons and the promise 
that so long as "the earth remaineth, seed time and 
harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and 
day and night, shall not cease.'- Gen. 8 :22. Be thankful 
for a land with free institutions, free thought and public 
speech. Be thankful that God has set to work the forces 
for man's betterment. It was He who opened the gate- 
way of advancement to King and peasant alike. It was 
He who unfurled the flag of equality. It was He who 
wrote the Golden Rule upon every law and statute book. 
He caused the stars to set a guardian angel above each 
sleeping babe. He founded the school and the college and 
cleared a path from its portal to every poor man's door. 
Be thankful then, all ye ends of the earth, and praise His 
name forever. 

IV. We have heard from Dr. Markley of St. Paul's, 
why we should thank God for this day's selection; we 
have heard from Dr. Baltzly of St. Luke's, why we should 
thank Him especially for His governing hand; and we 
have heard from the Rev. Kellar of St. Matthew's, why 
we should thank Him for the blessings of the land. These 
three different topics exhaust the proclamation of the 
President, with the exception of one thought. He says in 
this Proclamation : ''The dangers to national life are 
quite as great now as at any previous time in our 
history .... We are not threatened with foes from without. 
The foes from whom we should pray to be delivered are 
our own passions, appetites and follies, and against these 
there is always need that we should war. Therefore I 
now set apart the 30th day of November as a day of 
thanksgiving for the past and prayer for the future." 
Let me show you in conclusion Avhy Ave should thank God 

52 



818 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

FOR FUTURE PROTECTION. 

I. What are our foes? 
II. What are our forces? 

I. Our great President has said there are three great 
foes in this country, internal foes, our passions, our 
appetites, our follies. 

Now what are these passions? It is impossible in a 
few moments to tell you of all the passions and all the 
appetites and follies of this country, but it is only due 
to the truth that we should see all sides of this great 
question, and first of all I call attention to the great 
passion in this country for money; and one of the best 
illustrations we have of this passion is found in the great 
discussion in the east of the great insurance companies. 
I simply will state this fact, that John A. McCall of the 
New York Life, has spent |476,927.00 for legislative 
jobs; that he has spent to secure or prevent legislation, 
f 1,103,920.00 of the people's money. I call attention to 
the fact that in the Mutual Life, Mr. McCurdy, whose 
resignation was accepted yesterday, spent not less than 
1150,000.00 for himself, and |120,800.00 for one of his 
sons, and |147,680.00 for a son-in-law; in two years' time 
has spent |4,643,936.00 of widows' and orphans' money 
just to satisfy his own appetite and passion for money. 
I need not tell you that the great Senator from New York 
who has been listened to all over this country as one of 
the great men, is guilty of a crime in the Equitable which 
would place any poor man behind the bars. These men 
are such as President Koosevelt has in mind when he talks 
about the passions of this country that are our internal 
foes. These men are only some of the foes we have in 
our country. We have men all around us who will stoop 
to anything in order to spend their money so they do not 
have to go behind the bars. And that is a foe we have to 
contend with in the midst of all our blessings. 

Then how about some of the other foes? Look at 
sinful liberty. Just because this is a land of libertv, some 
people have the idea that they can go and do as they 



THANKSGIVING DAY. 819 

please instead of obeying God's holy law. God says we 
shall love Him with all our hearts, souls, minds and 
strength, but we have people who think they can call any 
one God, and I still feel ashamed in this year A. D. 1905, 
that we cannot have the name of Christ in a proclamation 
of thanksgiving. I still feel ashamed of a government 
that simply calls upon some term that any heathen and 
any foe uses. Let us not forget to look at the dark side 
of our government. There are some people who think 
they can curse and swear, and damn, no difference what 
God said; there are some people who seem to think they 
can do on the Lord's day Avhat they please, and Ave need 
not go far away from our doors to find them. 

These are foes of passion, and we have foes of appe- 
tite as well. It seems to me that the editorial that ap- 
peared in one of our city papers last night expresses 
about what our country is thinking at large; "Perhaps 
even more, however, will celebrate the day without any 
thought of thanks, but only intent upon enjoying material 
pleasures to the utmost and no preaching can lead some 
to any other recognition of this original 'holy day,' which 
from year to year takes on more of the character of an 
amusement or gala day, given over to feasting, athletic 
games, social gatherings and the pleasures of the ball, 
party, theater or other amusement." I believe one of the 
very passions and appetites of our country to-day is 
amusement. This young man that was killed down here 
on the railroad track the other day, was killed for amuse- 
ment; and the time has come that this nation ought to 
crush the hazing and the foolishness that is done by peo- 
ple who call themselves intelligent in our colleges, not 
even barring our Christian colleges, and the day ought 
to come soon in this country when our appetite to do any- 
thing mean and low and devilish, simply for fun, ought to 
be abolished. These ar^ foes that are found among the 
appetites. 

And how about the follies? How about the pride^ 
and the false education, and the ruined homes? We dare 
not overlook these follies. President Koosevelt is too 
wise not to call attention to the fact that we have inward 



820 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

foes that are going to ruin this country unless we rise to 
the height he is trying to rise, and crush them. Just 
yesterday I heard of a young lady in this city who is earn- 
ing six dollars a week who cannot come to church be- 
cause she cannot get clothing good enough. This is only 
one of hundreds, in our own country. The time has come 
that the poorest girl thinks she must dress like the prince's 
daughter, and if not, she cannot go to God's house. Isn't 
that a pride, my friends, that the devil has planted into 
this nation? Isn't that a pride that is ruining hundreds 
and thousands of souls? 

True it is that we have many colleges, for which we 
ought to thank God; true, we have our good public 
schools, for which we ought to thank God, but let us not 
forget to look at the darker side. Let us not forget, my 
friends, that we have in this country to-day graduates of 
colleges and high school students by the score that cannot 
help build a street car track or dig a sewer, or do the 
many things that ought to be done in this country. We 
talk against immigration, but you take the "dagoes" and 
the colored population out of this country to-day and 
what would we do? What are you going to do with the 
American boy? I tell you, my friends, we have foes right 
in our false system of education that need to be elim- 
inated. The time has come when men ought not only be 
educated, but know how to work; when girls ought to 
know that to be a good housekeeper is worth more than 
all the diplomas from all the colleges; when all of us 
ought to know that it requires the sweating of the face 
to earn our bread; and I repeat it, if we did not have 
help from other nations to-day Ave could not make the 
progress we are making. 

These are some of the follies, and I only mention 
one more, and that is our ruined homes. It does seem 
to me that all good things will center right back in the 
church and in our Christian homes; and I do think that 
if any country on earth has ruined homes, it is the 
American country. How many fathers have we that are 
found in the family? How many mothers have we that 
are true to their children? How manv homes have the 



THANKSGIVING DAY. 821 

family altars they ought to have? Oh, my friends, there 
are foes within. The President sees them and we all 
ought to see them. 

II. What are our forces? For what can we thank 
God in spite of these internalfoes? 

We can thank Him this morning for more Lutheran 
doctrine. I have in mind that great speech which Presi- 
dent Roosevelt made at the rededication of the Memorial 
Church in Washington. I just want to quote these few 
Avords : ''The Lutheran Church in this country is of very 
great power numerically and through the intelligence and 
thrift of its members, it will grow steadily to even 
greater power. It is destined to be one of the two or 
three greatest churches and most important national 
churches in the United States; one of the two or three 
churches most distinctly American, among the forces that 
are to tell for making this great country even greater 
in the future, therefore a peculiar load of responsibility 
rests upon the members of this church." I maintain that 
President Eoosevelt has struck the right cord when he 
calls our attention as a Lutheran Church to our great 
responsibility. In other words, there are few people to- 
day who are recognizing what a force the Lutheran Church 
is, not only in itself, but throughout all denominations. I 
can remember well the day when other churches never 
prayed the Lord's Prayer ; w hen they never confessed the 
Apostles' Creed; when they repudiated anything that 
consisted of a service responsive. To-day there isn't a 
church on earth any more that does not want something 
that the Lutheran church has had these many years. A 
man said to me the other day, "One reason I object to this 
responsive service is just because it came from the Roman 
Catholics," — too ignorant to know that the Catholics 
learned that from Dr. Luther. I want it understood that 
the Lutheran Church to-day is sending forth her religion 
and power throughout all the world, and this is one force 
that cannot be downed. I thank my God today for the 
effect that the Lutheran Church is having on all the 
<^hurches in the world. 

I thank my God to-day that we have more praying 



822 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

people than we ever had before. I do not mean to say that 
we have more people comparatively w^ho say their prayers, 
but I do not believe there ever w^as a time from the days 
of Christ until now^, w^hen there w^ere more people moved 
to go right into their closets and cry out to God for help 
for the nation and for the church than right now. I be- 
lieve the Holy Spirit is w orking in the hearts of the peo- 
ple as He never has before. We begin to feel that there 
is a powder in our midst that no man can resist. Even the 
former infidel and skeptic now^ apologizes for not being 
in the Christian Church. 

Let us thank God to-day for more missionary obed- 
ience. It is a remarkable fact that one hundred years ago 
a w^orld-wide missionary movement began. Stop and 
think what that means to-day! In the days of old there 
stood one man on Mount Carmel, a mighty man of God, — 
his power felt to-day. In the days of Christ one man stood 
dow^n along the Jordan, w ho gave his head for Christ — 
John the Baptist — his powder is felt to-day. In those 
days there w^as a mighty man, — little Paul — who made 
himself felt all over the w^orld, and wall be felt until the 
Judgment Day. In the days of the Reformation there 
w^as a Luther, w^ho stood up for conscience, for liberty of 
speech, and pure doctrines, and his power is felt to-day. 
Never did Luther live as he has lived in this year 1905; 
but I w^ant to say that there never w^as a time in all the 
w^orld W'hen there w^ere so many Elijahs, when there w ere 
so many John the Baptists, so many Pauls, so many Lu- 
therans, w^ho in every State of this Union, and in every 
city, are beginning to stand up and tell the mighty trutljs 
that God has Avanted told for centuries, and I bespeak 
for the coming year and years a pow er in our ministry 
such as we have never had before. The days are past 
when w^e are going to stand before the people and try 
to put them to sleep wdth philosophy ; the time has 
passed w^hen w^e can talk about everything except Jesus 
Christ, the Redeemer of the w orld, and the time wall come, 
mark w^hat I say, when His name goes into the proclama- 
tion of Thanksgiving, — and may that day come soon! 
Amen. 



THANKSGIVING DAY. 823 

PRAYER. 
By Dr. Baltzly. 

Thou art our God and we recognize Thy hand in the destinies 
of nations, in the care and preservation of this great country, which 
Thou in Thy pleasure hast called into being; we thank Thee for this 
day, and we ask that we may understand and comprehend something of 
what it means not only to the nation but to the cause of Jesus Christ, 
We ask Thy blessing upon us as worshipers as we have come to Thee, 
and by our presence and our songs, our confessions and our works we 
have declared our unalterable unchanging allegiance to Thee, Thou 
eternal God of all the earth; and as we go from this place of worship, 
let Thy Spirit attend the words that have been given, that we may be 
encouraged, and that we may be on our guard against the foes without 
and within : in Jesus' name, who has taught us to pray : 

Our Father who art in heaven ; H'allowed be Thy name ; Thy 
kingdom come ; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven ; Give 
us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us ; And lead us not into temptation ; 
But deliver us from evil; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 

Our Dear Dead. 

1 Thes. 4:13-18. 

BUT I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them 
which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have 
no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, 
even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. For 
this we say unto you by the Word of the Lord, that we which are alive 
and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which 
are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a 
shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and 
the dead in Christ shall rise first : then we which are alive and remain 
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord 
in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfori 
one another with these words. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved in Christ: 

We are reminded not only, by nature but by the text 
selected by the Church, that death is coming. One glance 
at the trees, the leaves of which have fallen to the ground, 
one glance at the grass that has withered, will tell you 
that the winter is near and that death is coming. In our 
selection of texts for the Church year, as we approach the 
end we treat of death, of the resurrection, and of Judg- 
ment. We have been thinking very much concerning the 
dead in other families, but I would invite you this even- 
ing to go with me to yonder cemetery, and just spend an 
hour by the side of the graves of your own dear ones. As 
a nation on the 30th day of May we pay a tribute to our 
soldiers who laid down their lives on the battlefield for 
the liberty and protection of our country, but, my dear 

824 



TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 825 

friends, some of the greatest battles have been fought in 
homes with the blinds drawn closely down, in rooms where 
they have not been seen by the world. There have been 
battles fought in your own home among those that have 
passed beyond that are not described on the 30th day of 
May, and it is perfectly in order that we should, at least 
once in the year, pay special respect and honor to those 
of our own who lie in yonder little beds prepared by 
the Savior as a place of rest until He shall raise them up 
on that beautiful morning; and no difference how humble 
our homes; no difference where those little flowers are 
j^en, it was a dear one that passed away ; and, therefore, I 
invite your attention this evening to 

OUR DEAR DEAD. 

May God, the Holy Spirit, help us so to live and so 
to die that when that hour comes that we fall asleep, we 
may fall asleep in Jesus. 

I. Concerning our dear dead, let me state that l^ot 
all are here. We are apt to think that only a few people 
are dead. We think of the one billion, four hundred mil- 
lions of people on this earth as if they were the greatest 
part of humanity; we forget that in every century three 
times as many people as are living on earth today, pass 
beyond. Where is the man who is able to compute how 
many people have fallen by the hand of death from the 
days of Adam and Eve until this very hour? Multitudes, 
multitudes are sleeping in their graves. In every family 
there are some missing, and when we trace this family 
back to our forefathers, we need not go far until we are 
compelled to say, they are all dead ; not all are here. 

II. Then I would say, Our dead are dear. How dear 
they are to us, those that sleep under that little mound 
yonder. One has a dear father there, another a dear 
mother, another a dear brother, another a dear sister, 
another a dear wife, another a dear husband, another a 
dear little child. Sometimes Avhen we read of the ungodly 
people who are ready to slaughter their children, we won- 
der how it can be. When I stop to think how dear that 



826 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

one is to me that only saw this world twenty-five hours, I 
wonder how any man can be brutish enough, how any 
woman can be hard-hearted enough, to rejoice in the death 
of their offspring. How dear our dead are to us. 

III. Next I would say of our dear dead, They sleep 
so near. It is not far away that we find their little beds. 
There was a time when this world was a large world; 
there was a time when it took a long time to go to where 
some of our dead were; but in these days of swift com- 
munication and swift travel, it only takes a little while 
to go to yonder bed where mother sleeps, to go where 
father sleeps, and where brother and sister, and dear little 
children sleep, where our dear little son sleeps, and he 
sleeps ! Oh, what a beautiful thought, he sleeps ! Heathen 
philosophy never knew that, but we know it. He who 
conquered death said, Lazarus sleepeth. The maid is not 
dead, she sleepeth. When those men picked up their rocks 
and threw them at Stephen until he fell dead, I suppose 
they thought he is now out of the way, but the Word of 
God tells us he sleepeth. Stephen is sleeping; Lazarus is 
sleeping; and our dear dead are sleeping, not far away. 
When we put our children to sleep we never think it is a 
sad hour. With a kiss and with a prayer we say "Good- 
night, little darling,'^ expecting in the morning to see them 
awake. But, my dear friends, when our children awake 
in the morning, they only awake to go to sleep again ; they 
awake to die ; but these dear dead of ours, when they wake 
up, they will awake never to sleep again. 

IV. Concerning our dear dead, I would say, Hide 
not your tear. "But I would not have you to be ignorant, 
brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sor- 
row not, even as others which have no hope." Mark well, 
the Holy Spirit does not tell us not to sorrow, but not 
to sorrow as those who have no hope. Throughout the 
history of the world funerals have been dreadful days for 
the children of the world, and I cannot help but notice 
in my own ministry the wonderful difference between a 
funeral in a Christian home and a funeral that is held in 
some home where there is no hope. In all homes we find 
sadness, and why should we not? Hide not your tear. It 



TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 827 

is sad in every home to part with our dear ones, and we 
never know ho^^ dear they are until that hour when they 
close their eyes in sleep. Therefore, it becomes necessary 
for us not to be too careful not to shed a tear. There is 
nothing in this stolid philosophy that simply says we 
cannot change things and what do we care ; and stand at 
the grave as if w^e Avere stone and had no hearts of flesh. 
When we stand by the open graves of our dear ones we 
realize what sin has done ; we know what it means to have 
those sacred cords torn apart; we know what it means to 
say, ashes to ashes, and dust to dust over the flesh and 
bone of our own bodies ; but let us not, with all our tears, 
weep like those that have no hope. It is a terrible thing 
to stand by the grave of one who has not fallen asleep in 
Jesus. I am not surprised to find people weep and howl 
in the presence of their dead when they have lived like 
animals and died like animals and have no hope; but re- 
member, that the apostle Paul does not admonish every- 
body not to weep. ''Weep not like those that have no 
hope; for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, 
even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with 
Him." 

But how about those who do not sleep in Jesus? To 
think that I should stand by the side of a father's casket, 
who did not love Jesus, to think that I should stand by 
the grave of a mother who was not baptized and never 
cared for the Bible nor for prayer, nor for things that are 
good and holy; to think that I should have to stand by the 
grave of a son Avho never gave his heart to God ; to think 
that I should have to stand b}- the grave of a daughter 
who had died in her sins ; to think that we must stand b}^ 
the graves of our offspring, created in the image of God, 
and dying in all their sins and agonies, no wonder we 
should weep and howl and cry out, My God, why hast 
Thou forsaken me? But, my dear friends, hide not your 
tears, even though you know your dear ones fell asleep 
in Jesus; though you know they are better off than they 
would be here. It is perfectly allowable to let a tear steal 
down over your face ; it is no easy matter not to see that 
dear one in her little chair; it is no easy matter not to 



828 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

see the mother's face any more; it is no easy matter to 
part in this world from those who have gone to yonder 
shore. Let us not be ashamed of a tear for our dear dead. 

V. Then, I would say concerning our dear dead, The 
way is clear. "For this we say unto you by the Word of 
the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the 
coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are 
asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven 
with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with 
the i rump of God : and the dead in Christ shall rise 
first : then we which are alive and remain shall be caught 
up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in 
the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.'' Mark 
weJl, these words which I have just read are not the opin- 
ions of an apostle Paul. He declares this Word he got 
from the Lord Jesus Christ. Now surely, the Lord Jesus 
Christ w^ho died on Calvary, slept in the grave, and arose 
again on the third day, conquered death and remained 
on earth a period of forty days and forty nights and then 
ascended on high in the presence of the disciples, went 
on home to the Father, and afterwards cried from heaven. 
"Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?" and in the Book 
of Kevelation called down to John from heaven, know the 
way. It was He who said, I am the Way, the Truth and 
the Life, and no man cometh to the Father but by Me. 
Jesus, who died and ascended on high, shows us that He 
is the way, and the way for our dear dead to go home. 

I am not talking this evening about those that fell 
asleep without Christ ; I am talking to you as a Christian 
people. The apostle Paul was writing this letter to the 
Thessalonians ; they were a Christian people, but they 
were worried about their dead ; they had the promise of a 
coming Savior, and they thought He would come soon, and 
He had not come; they were wondering, When will our 
Savior come? Oh, says the apostle Paul, I have got a 
message for you from the Lord, and it is a very clear mess- 
age concerning the dead. I want you to understand that 
when death comes you fall asleep, and you remain in the 
grave until Christ shall come in the clouds. The same 
Savior that went up on high is coming again, and when 



TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 829 

He does come, do not for a moment think that these dead 
ones are going to see Him last. No, He says, you shall not 
prevent those that are dead. The word "prevent" origin- 
ally meant, to go before; and so he says, you must not 
think you are going before. "For this we say unto you by 
the Word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain 
unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent (or go be- 
fore) them which are asleep.-- In other words, when the 
Savior comes, and you and I are not dead, those that are 
dead A\ill rise before we go to heaven, and we shall see 
them when they rise. Oh, what a comfort it is tonight to 
know that your dear dead ^ill rise up and you shall see 
them; for we are told here that We shall be caught up 
together. Families shall go to heaven together, those that 
fall asleep in Jesus; we shall know each other; we shall 
be together ; and we will go on home to that home on high 
the same way that Jesus Christ ascended. 

Not only is it a fact that we shall be there and go 
together, but we shall go there at the shout of the Lord 
our God. It is a remarkable thing what a power the Word 
of God has. When we turn to the first chapter of the 
Bible we find that God said. Let there be light, and there 
was light. God created the heavens and the earth with 
His Word, and I do not know that He said it very loud; 
He may have whispered. Let there be light, and there was 
light. The same God, who with a whisper of His Word, 
can make the sun and the moon and stars and the con- 
stellations of the heavens, when He shouts, the dead shall 
rise, your dead and my dead. People say. How shall the 
dead rise? The dead shall rise by the shout of the mighty 
Word of God that made the heavens and the earth with a 
word. The trump of God shall sound; the archangels 
shall sound their trumps, and God shall raise them up, 
and then Ave shall be gathered with them. 

You will please to notice that there is not one 
word said here about those that fall asleep in their 
sins. We read in the Book of Bevelation of a first 
resurrection and a second resurrection; Ave also read 
in the Word of God of a Judgment, but remember, it is 



830 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

not for us to tell just how long it will be between the first 
resurrection and the second; the Bible does tell us that 
there is a period of a thousand years called the millenium, 
and I have my own private opinion about when that mill- 
enium will be. Some people think it is coming before the 
first resurrection, but how will that harmonize with the 
teaching of God's Word that the world shall grow worse 
and worse until the end shall come? There is no millen- 
ium before the first resurrection, but I do believe that 
when God shall raise up those that fall asleep in Christ, 
and we who are here on earth changed in the twinkling of 
the eye, shall be lifted up together with them, that God 
will combine His judgment with the resurrection, and 
that a thousand years there shall be of reign before those 
who shall rise hereafter shall go into that awful death 
of ever djdng and never being dead, called eternal death. 
Of one thing we can rest assured tonight, and that is that 
God will do things just right for our dead. 

And now let us be in the clear ! If we want to ascend 
to heaven on that last great day, we must die in Christ 
Jesus ; and if we want to die in Christ Jesus, we have got 
to live in Him; if we are going to be sure we are living 
in Him; we must be sure we are living in Him right 
now. How do you know you are going to fall asleep in 
Jesus if today you are a child of the devil? Consequently, 
we are admonished to comfort one another with these 
words. Yes, there is a comfort in these words. Isn't it a 
comfort to you, my dear hearer, tonight, to know that God 
has dealt with every individual separately in all the Avorld 
before? Isn't it a comfort to you to know that your own 
■dear dead were dear to Christ? Isn't it a comfort to you 
to know that those who have fallen asleep in Jesus will 
wake up never to sleep again? Isn't it a comfort to you 
to know that you have enough heart in you yet to -shed a 
tear for your dear ones? And isn't it a comfort to you to 
know that the way is made so clear that a man must be 
a fool if he does not understand it? Now, my dear friends, 
take these words and comfort yourselves with them. God 
will raise up your dead and give them the crown of eternal 
life if they fell asleep in Jesus. 



TWENTY-FIFTH 8LXDAY' AFTER TRINITY. 831 

And yet I cannot close these few words this evening 
without a word of admonition to those that are living 
without Christ. How can I comfort your living ones when 
you are dead? Some of you are living as if there were no 
God in heaven ; some of yon are living as if the Bible were 
a lie; some of you are living as if you took a delight in 
opposing everything that God ever said. All our pleading 
and all our praying, and all our coaxing, seems to be in 
vain ; you have given yourselves apparently into the hands 
of the devil, and you are living on from day to day, trying 
to persuade yourselves that after all it will be all right, 
no difference how you live nor how you die. If I were 
to offer you five dollars tomorrow morning you would 
l)e in my stud}- in five minutes time, but when I offer you 
the plan of salvation to show you hoAV to live and die and 
be eternally with your God and be saved, you do not care. 
My friends, I come to you tonight with what may be the 
last plea. Kemember, God is not always going to ask you ; 
He is not going to continue forever and ever to say. Come 
unto Me. I give you one more invitation tonight to come 
to our class on Friday evening and learn more fully the 
plan of salvation. Be ready every day to be the best citi- 
zen you can possibly be in this world, and when you fall 
asleep, to fall asleep in Christ, and then when you lie in 
your coffin some preacher does not need to stand there and 
play hypocrite; he does not need to stand there with 
almost a broken heart and try to comfort people when 
he cannot; he does not need to say, I hope you are in 
heaven, when he feels in his very heart you are in hell. 
T would ask you tonight to be honest with your own soul, 
and honest with your God, and while you are thinking of 
your dear dead, remember that when you rise you want to 
be gathered with them, but as sure as there is a God in 
heaven, as sure as this Bible is His Word, if you do not 
fall asleep in Jesus, you cannot awake in His name and be 
His. May God help you tonight to decide to live for 
Christ, so that when you die and Ave speak of our dear 
dead, we may speak of 3^ou as having fallen asleep in Jesus. 
Then Ave can bring comfort to your dear family; then 
thev Avill ijo home from the cemeterA^ and feel that it was 



832 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

a good thing that our father, and our mother, our son, 
and our daughter, prepared to meet their God. Did you 
ever stop to think why we call that place out there God's 
Acre, or cemetery? The Ge^jmans call it the yard of peace 
— Gottesacker. Cemetery , means the place where they 
sleep. Oh, what a beautiful thought. God's acre, the gar- 
den of peace, where the angels of God are watching over 
our dear dead. Amen. 



TWENTY-SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 

The Word and the World. 

2 Pet. 3:3-14. 

KNOWING this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, 
walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise 
of His coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things 
continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this 
they willingly are ignorant of, that by the Word of God the heavens 
were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water : 
whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, per- 
ished : But the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same 
Word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment 
and perdition of ungodly men. But, beloved, be not ignorant of this 
one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a 
thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His 
promise, as some men count slackness, but is long suffering to us-ward, 
not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repent- 
ance. But the da}^ of the Lord will come as a thief in the night ; in 
the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the 
elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that 
are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall 
be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy con- 
versation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the 
day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and 
the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according 
to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth 
righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, 
be diligent that ye may be found of Him in peace, without spot, and 
blameless. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved in Christ: 

The Apostle Peter in this second and last letter, 
recognizes the fact that in a very few weeks he will stand 
before his God. It is the last letter that he is to write, 

53 833 



834 TWENTY-SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 

and he wants to assure the world of three things before 
he dies : One is that Jesus Christ is the promised Savior ; 
that false teachers with damnable heresies, as he calls 
them, Avill come; and the third is that the Bible is the 
Word of God without the possibility of a doubt. 

With regard to Christ's coming and being the true 
Savior, he says : ^'For we have not followed cunningly de- 
vised fables, when we made known unto you the power and 
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye witnesses 
of His majesty. For He received from God the Father 
honor and glory, when there came such a voice to Him 
from the excellent glory, This is My beloved Son in whom 
I am well pleased. And this voice which came from 
heaven we heard, when we were with Him in the holy 
mount." The Apostle Peter refers to that time on the 
Mount of Transfiguration, when he heard the voice of the 
Father in heaven saying of Jesus, in the presence of Moses 
and Elijah : This is My beloved Son in whom I am well 
pleased. Now, he says, there is no doubt about it that 
this is your Savior. I tell you this before I die. 

And, he says, I want you to understand furthermore, 
that though He is the Savior, there will be false prophets, 
there will be false teachers, and you have no right to 
think that everybody who comes to you and looks holy and 
stands behind the Bible is a saved man. He says with 
regard to this : "But there were false prophets also among 
the people, even as there shall be false teachers among 
you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even 
denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon them- 
selves swift destruction." In that Peter was not mis- 
taken, as all history demonstrates. There have been 
many, many false prophets since Peter's death, who have 
just taught these damnable heresies. 

The one thing Peter wanted to liold up above all 
things is this, that you can fully trust the Word of God. 
For surely when he saw Christ with his own eyes, and 
heard the voice of the Father with his own ears, had 
touched and handled Jesus, he surely felt certain in his 
own heart and mind that this is the true Savior; but he 
goes on and says we have a truth that is even more certain : 



TWENTY-SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 835 

^'We have also a more sure word of prophesy; where- 
unto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that 
shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day 
star arise in your hearts; knowing this first, that no 
prophesy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. 
For the prophesy came not in old time by the will of man, 
but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy 
Ghost.'- Then, says Peter, I want you to understand that 
this Word of God is the Word of the Holy Spirit, and it 
is as certain as anything you ever saw, as certain as any- 
thing you ever heard, as certain as anything you ever felt. 
In the text of this day the apostle goes on to show 
the Avonderful connection between the Word of God and 
the world in which we live and the worlds all around us. 
May the Holy Spirit help us this evening to get wider 
visions of this great truth as we behold 

THE WORD AND THE WORLD. 

I. In beholding the Word and the world, our first 
observation is that the Word knew there would be ig- 
norant scoffers in the world. "KnoAving this first, that 
there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after 
their own lusts, and saying. Where is the promise of His 
coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things con- 
tinue as they were from the beginning of creation." Have 
you ever seen more scoffers in history than we find in 
the past three centuries? Take that age in Europe and 
that age in France when they dethroned the true and 
living God and set up false gods on the altars of the 
churches; wasn't that scoffing? And take those people of 
our own country who have taken the cross of Christ with 
Him hanging thereon, and run telegraph wires over it, 
to show that that cross is certainly good for a telegraph 
pole if for nothing else. If those are not pictures of the 
scoffing generation among whom we are living, I do not 
understand what Peter means, nor what history is. Why 
is it we have so many people in the present day that 
never see the inside of a church, that never go where they 
can hear a sermon, that never study God's Word? It is 



836 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

because they are doing just what Peter said they would, 
they are living after their own lusts ; they cannot bear the 
light of God's Word; every time they hear a sermon it 
stirs up their consciences, and they go home and cannot 
sleep, and they make up their minds it is far better to 
stay away from the light and the truth and let conscience 
go to sleep, and scoff at religion. The question with them 
is that if John said, "Behold, He comes quickly," how 
does it come He didn't come? They say. You have been 
standing at the graves of the dead for the last six thous- 
and years, saying ashes to ashes and dust to dust, with 
the hope of a resurrection to eternal life, and their ashes 
are lying there yet. Why doesn't God come and raise 
them up? You have been talking about this great last 
day, about the Avonderful Judgment, but we hear these 
sermons all our lives, and our fathers heard them, and 
this old earth is just as solid as it ever was, and it will 
stand forever and ever, you don't know what you are 
doing ; you are a set of fools and you better stay at home, 
eat, drink, and be merry and have a good time; the world 
isn't coming to an end; the Judgment is all the folly of 
priests, and consequently we would ask you to come out 
and scoff with us. In a hotel not very long ago a young 
man sat up in the presence of the company and said to 
all around who were laughing at his sport, "The old 
Bible has been prophesying this and that, and there isn't 
one prophesy in it that ever came true, in spite of what 
the preachers say." An old farmer sitting by heard this 
remark and said : "I am going to prove to this crowd that 
the old Bible don't make any mistakes. I want to show 
this crowd that the Apostle Peter knew two thousand 
years ago that you would be here tonight," and then he 
read these words: "Knowing this first, that there shall 
come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own 
lusts;" and the crowd laughed the young man to shame, 
and said, "Now shut up." He had just been fulfilling the 
Word of God himself in that very moment; for the Word 
of God knew that these scoffers would come into the 
world. 

II. Not only is it true that the Word knew that 



TWENTY-SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 837 

scoffers would come into the world, but the Word created 
and formed the world. ^'For this they Avillingly are ig- 
norant of, that by the Word of God the heavens were of 
old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the 
water." What a beautiful vision that verse gives us of 
the Word and the world. Some people seem to think that 
the Word of God lies within the pages of a Book called 
the Bible, but the Apostle Peter says, if you get your eyes 
open as you ought to get them open, you will realize that 
this Word made all the worlds, and therefore there isn't 
a star that you can behold at night that isn't a spark of 
the lamp of God's Word; there isn't a sun nor moon in 
all the different planets that does not belong to the fruits 
of this great Word of God. Why, says the Apostle Peter, 
if you were not as ignorant as the old scoff'ers are, you 
would know that when you stumble over a stone that you 
stumble over what God's Word made. There isn't a fish 
in the sea; there isn't a bird in the air; there isn't an 
insect flying around the lights ; there isn't a worm crawl- 
ing its way through the dust in the ground; there isn't 
a grass nor a floAver ; there isn't a tree nor a leaf ; there 
isn't a thing in the world that God has not made with 
His Word. 

And the Word of God not only called all things into 
existence but has moulded and shoved them around until 
the waters cover the earth, and at the same time the is- 
lands come out of the water. Says the Apostle Peter: 
"For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the Word 
of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing 
out of the water and in the water." I would like to have 
you get this vision that Peter gives us in order that you 
may not walk around on earth like some irrational animal, 
like the swine with his ears hanging over his eyes, look- 
ing for acorns; the thing to do is to remember that God 
created you erect, to stand on two feet, with eyes that 
can look both forward and upward; wherever you see 
anything, remember that the things you hold in your hand, 
the things you touch, the things you see, are God's Word 
in expansion. 

III. Again, with regard to the Word and the world, 



888 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

observe that the Word overflowed the whole world. 
"Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with 
water, perished.'' Do not forget that time of the world 
when God said to Noah, I will give the world one hun- 
dred and twenty years to repent; do not forget that Noah 
was a preacher of righteousness; do not forget that the 
people scoffed then already and said these things cannot 
be. Why, though the people in that age as they think 
even now, those who are ignorant, hoAv could there be 
enough water in this world to cover over the hills and 
the mountains and the highest trees flfteen cubits? But 
remember, my friends, that the same Word that made the 
^'orlds could make ^^'ater; and so when the ark was 
finished and Noah had taken two of every kind, and seven 
of those for sacrifices into the ark, then God's Word 
said, Ye windows of heaven open ; and they opened ; and, 
Ye fountains of the deep burst forth; and they burst 
forth: and the waters from the earth below and the 
waters from the heavens above came and leaped and 
roared over the hills and valleys and over the mountains 
and tree tops, until the last breath of man went down 
with the bubbling waters, and the shoreless surface bore 
up the ark which had no rudder, for there was no shore 
to steer to. God's Word overfloAved the whole world, and 
to-day on the mountain tops of all the Avorld lie the little 
monuments of stones made up of sea shells, in order that 
philosophy and science must acknowledge that the hills 
and the mountains and the flood of old were all the result 
of the mighty W^ord of God. 

IV. The Apostle Paul insisted upon it that we must 
have a clear view of God's Word, for, he says the Word 
regulates and has been preserving the world. "But the 
heavens and the earth which are now, by the same Word 
are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of 
judgment and perdition of ungodly men." When you 
look at your geography you will find a picture of the world 
resting upon the shoulders of Atlas, the great man holding 
the world. If you ask heathen philosophy what is it that 
holds up this world, it tells us it is a great sea turtle 
that has the world resting upon it. If you ask, where 



TWENTY-SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 839 

is the sea turtle, they tell us, in the great sea ; if you 
ask them how is the great sea held, by what shores, 
they sa3^, Ave do not know. Philosophy has never been 
able to tell us how things began nor ended, but the great 
Word of God that called the world into existence, and 
overflowed the world with the great flood, is to-day hold- 
ing the worlds in their places, and they dare not move out 
until the Word says, I will let go. And why is it that 
this world is just where it is? why is it that it turns 
on its axis just as it does? Avhy is it that it turns just 
as fast as it does? why is it that all the heavenly bodies 
are running in their regular spaces and are not moving 
outside the given orbit? It is because they are held there 
by tlie mighty Word of God. Now, says the Apostle 
Peter, in order that you may get a wider idea of the power 
of the Word, I want you to understand that it is not 
Atlas; it is not some great imaginary sea turtle; it isn't 
even the hand of God; it is the Word of God that is 
holding the worlds and keeping them day by day for that 
great day to come. 

V. Observe, too, that the Word and the world hold 
this relation: The Word regulates time in this world. 
"But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one 
day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand 
years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His 
promise, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffer- 
ing to usward.'' A great many of us are asking the 
question, Why is God waiting so long? We have been 
praying and praying that the Lord might come, said the 
people of old, but why does He not come? They hung 
their harps upon the willow^s and said. Watchman, what 
of the night? They looked for the coming Savior, and 
some thought He never would come. They forgot that for 
the eternal God a thousand years are as one day, and a 
day as a thousand years. For a little insect that can be 
born in the morning and can die in the evening, an hour 
seems terribly long; and for us who are born in one 
generation and die the next, it seems a long while to wait, 
but for God, who is from eternity to all eternity, a thous- 
and years is as a day, and a day as a thousand years, and 



840 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

if the Lord God has been holding off a little longer than 
JO 11 expected with the answer to your prayers, remember 
that the arithmetic of heaven isn't the same as the mathe- 
matics of our schools; remember that the eternal God 
has an arithmetic of His own, and He never loses one 
moment; never loses an hour; His watch never runs 
down; His time is just exactly right, and on the great 
Judgment Day we will find that the Word does not reckon 
time like the world does. God's train always comes in on 
schedule time. 

VI. Next observe that the Word is here to save the 
world. "The Lord is . . . not willing that any should perish, 
but that all should come to repentance." I wish I could 
make every one in this house grasp that thought. I Avish 
I could talk to you a te^y moments as if you and I were 
all alone, sitting on the palm of God's hand; I would 
show you that you are born in a state that cannot be saved 
unless you are born again; I would show you that God 
loves you too well and loves heaven too well, to permit 
you to enter heaven with your sinful nature and thereb\^ 
make a hell of heaven; I would show you that the Lord 
has made this earth with His Word, and has preserved it, 
for the purpose that you might hear this Word and be 
saved; I would show you that God wants you to know 
the Ten Commandments in order that you might know 
His will, what you are to do and what you are not to do. 
I wish I could make you understand that the law of God 
is perfect and you are imperfect; that the perfect law 
condemns you because you are imperfect. I would that 
you might understand that this Word shows you how 
Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, took upon Himself 
your own nature, in order that you might be innocent 
while you are guilty, and died upon the cross for yoii, be- 
cause you are a miserable lost sinner, in order that He 
might save you by grace. I wish I could tell you this 
story until your eyes are filled with tears; until you 
would cry, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver 
me? Thanks be to God, I shall be delivered through Jesus 
Christ, as Paul wrote in his beautiful epistle. I wish you 
might understand that if you feel this evening that you 



TWENTY-SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 841 

are lost it is not the Bible's fault ; it is not the preaching 
of the Gospel's fault; it is not God's fault; it is not 
the fault of the prayers of Christians ; it is not the fault 
of the holy angels ; it is not the fault of Jesus Christ — 
Bje died for you; pray tell me, what more do you want 
Him to do for you than to lay down His life for you, and 
conquer death, and rise again, and plead with you every 
hour of your life? That, my friends, is the message of 
the Word. "Not willing that any should perish, but that 
all should come to repentance." 

VII. Observe that the Word will soon start a fire 
that will purify the world. "But the day of the Lord 
will come as a thief in the night ; in the which the heavens 
shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall 
melt with fervent heat." And above, in the 7th verse, we 
read : "By the same Word are kept in store, reserved unto 
fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly 
men." One night Belshazzar of old sat with his wife and 
concubines drinking wine out of the gold and silver ves- 
sels stolen from the temple at Jerusalem, highly praising 
the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, wood and 
of stone, when all at once his knees began to tremble, 
and his face grew pale, for he saw on the wall a hand 
writing Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin, which means in 
oui^ language that he was weighed in the balances and 
found wanting ; that the kingdom would be divided, taken 
from him; and that night Belshazzar perished. My dear 
friends, let us not forget that the hand is on the wall 
writing for us to-day these memorable facts: The Word 
is now holding the fire back.. The Word will suddenly 
unite the fires of the heavens and the earth. The Word 
is now ready to burn in our hearts. 

The Word is now holding the fire back. Remember 
it is said here, "reserved unto fire against the day of 
judgment." Some people wonder why it is, if this world 
is going to burn up that it doesn't burn. Why, it is 
burning, my friends. A man must be in ignorance if he 
does not know that when he is sitting in his home and 
warming his hands at the gas that it is God's fire coming 
out of the earth now to warm him ; and I am here to say 



842 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

this evening on the authority of God's Word, that if this 
Word did not hold the fire bacl?:, you and I would never 
get out of this church alive. Why is it that the gas in the 
very bowels of the earth does not break forth and burst 
everything to pieces? Tt is because it is being held back 
by the surface around, which is the almighty Word of 
God. Notice the picture that Peter gives of the Word. 
The Word is holding the fire back for the Judgment Day. 
We know that the earth is full of fire ; we know that every 
relic that has ever come to us from the planets on high 
has gone through fire, and so I would have you to under- 
stand that the only reason that the end of the world has 
not come yet is because of the power of the Word of God 
that can hold it back a little while longer. 

The day is coming when the Word will suddenly let 
go ; then you will see such a fire as you never saw before. 
There are three words in the Bible Avhich are translated 
world; the one is "r^/," which simply means the earth; 
the other is ''xoff[xoq,'' which means the present formation 
of the earth; the third is ""i'^'^" vdiich means the time of 
the world. Now some people imagine that when Peter 
says the earth is going to burn up, it is going to be an- 
nihilated. The earth is going to burn ; it is not going to 
be annihilated. There will be a fire starting forth all 
over the earth, and it will come down from the heavens, 
and we will have a fire picture of the flood of old. When 
God destroyed the world the first time. He did it with 
water, bursting forth from the earth and pouring from the 
open windows of heaven; but when the next destruction 
comes, it will not be water then, it will be that God's 
Word will say, Now, fires, break loose; now roar, ye 
heavens and earth; and such a cracking and noise and 
thundering you v>ill never hear before. You have heard 
in the Word of God that when Christ coDies he will blow 
the trump. I suppose you thought He would come with a 
horn in His mouth. Every star shall be part of His 
trump; the whole universe shall roar and thunder and 
burn; then the Word of God will say, Now I will burn 
this earth and make it pure ; I will burn up all the dross 
of all the bodies; and the heavens shall roar and crack 



TWE!NTY-SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 848 

and come together by the same mighty Word of God 
again until every heavenly body and the earth itself shall 
become a mansion of the Father's house. "In My Father's 
house are many mansions; if it were not so 1 would have 
told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go 
and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and re- 
ceive you unto myself* that where I am, there ye may be 
also." The Apostl^f*W)ld us in last Sunday's lesson that 
we shall meet Him in the air. Where else shall we meet 
Him when the earth drops from under iis? Where else 
can we go but in the air, in the presence of God? And 
the Judgment is there. The Word will hold those on the 
right, and those on the left. The Word will say to those 
on the right. Come; and to those on the left. Go! Oh, 
the power of that W\ird that says. Go! Oh, the power of 
that Word that holds the earth this evening, reserving it 
for you and for me, to lives of purification and of light. 
This Word is now ready to burn in our own hearts. 
"Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what 
manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversa- 
tion and godliness? Nevertheless we, according to His 
promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein 
dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that 
ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found 
of Him in X3eace, without spot, and blameless.'' Oh, the 
harmony that must exist between the saved in heaven. 
This evening we are all rather spotted yet; we are all 
rather full of blame yet; we all lack a good deal of that 
peace yet; there is only one fire that can ever cleanse us 
to make us spotless ; that can bring into our hearts that 
peace; that can ever make us blameless, and that is the 
fire of the Holy Spirit, by whom the Word of God was 
given, and through whom the worlds are reserved. And 
therefore I would ask you this evening. How is it with 
3^ou? Have you still got a grudge at your neighbor? You 
know which side you will be on when the Judgment Day 
comes if you do not repent. Are you living a life of un- 
cleanness, and not trying to live a better life? Are you 
still living in sin, adultery and all bad thoughts, and lust? 
If so, you know which side you will be on when the Judg- 



844 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

merit Day comes, if you are not spotless. Are you living 
a life condemned by your own conscience? Does your 
own conscience prove to you every day that you are not 
trying to fight for the right? Keep watch, pray for the 
higher life; then you will know on what side you will be 
on that great day. Remember that the same fire that 
purifies the earth and the heavens and makes a heaven 
that is spotless, is the same fire in God's name that wishes 
to burn in your hearts and in your consciences this even- 
ing, and wants you to turn to Jesus Christ, your only 
Savior, and trust in Him fully, and fight the good fight 
of faith^ that you may receive the crown of eternal life. 

My dear friends, it seems to me that if you never 
have heard a sermon before and never should hear another 
one, you could not stand before God on the last great day 
and ssij, I did not know ; I had no opportunity of hearing 
the truth. Don't join the scoffers. You will have plenty 
of time, if you Avant to scoff, in hell ; don't do it here. 
Give your heart to God and serve Him right now. 

I cannot help but think that there must be many, 
many people sitting right before me this evening that are 
not really communicant members of the church yet; there 
may be some Avho have never been baptized yet. Now the 
chance is given next Friday evening to come into my class 
and there Jearn just exactly what it is to be a saved man, 
and then accept the Savior and be saved every hour and 
every day ; and it does seem to me that if you do not ac- 
cept this invitation you deserve to be lost. I cannot 
help but think it. God is calling you this evening and 
it may be this is the last call. Oh come, come, and pre- 
pare to meet your God. Prepare just as soon as you can. 
But you may not reach next Friday evening; this A^ery 
hour, he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, 
and he that believeth not shall be damned. If you are not 
saved, be sure, before you walk out of this house tonight 
to say. My God and my Savior, here I am; accept me 
and I will serve Thee the best that I can ; and I will do 
all I can to obey Thy commandments and trust in Thee 
until I die. Help me for Jesus sake" Amen. 



TWENTY-SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 845 

PRAYER. 

Dear Father in heaven, if this were the last sermon that I were 
to preach in the world, I would thank Thee for this, another opportunity 
of giving a last call to all to come to Thee and be saved. Oh, I do 
thank Thee this evening, my Father in heaven, for being a minister of 
the Gospel, one called to preach the Word that made the worlds, and 
is reserving this world until that day when the worlds on high and 
this one in conflagration shall become the new heaven and the new 
earth where we shall dwell forever with Thee. Oh, Father in heaven, 
there is no mistake about Thy plans ; Thy plans are good and right, 
and Thou art carrying them out every day; there is no slackness about 
Thee ; th,ere is nothing wrong with Thy watch ; a thousand years in 
Thy sight are as but a day, and a day as a thousand years. Oh, Father 
in heaven, help us not to forget that with us a day is not as a thou- 
sand years ; help us not to forget that with us this day may mean 
heaven and it may mean hell. Oh, Lord, do Thou help us to realize the 
value of time ; help us right now to give our souls to Him who taught 
us to pray: 

Our Father who art in heaven; Hallowed be Thy name; Thy 
kingdom come ; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven ; Give 
us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation; 
But deliver us from evil; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



TWENTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 
Ten Truths God Wants You to Know Perfectly, 

1 Thes. 5 :1-11. 

BUT of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that 
I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day 
of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they 
shall say, Peace and safety ; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, 
as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye,. 
brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a 
thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day : 
we are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, 
as do others ; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep 
in the night ; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But 
let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith 
and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For God hath 
not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus 
Christ, who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live 
together with Him. Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify 
one another, even as also ye do. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved in Christ: 

What the immortal soul needs is truth. There is one 
truth that you can find in your hearts; at least sparks of 
it. I refer to the Ten Commandments. When God 
created man He planted the law in his heart, and if it had 
not been for sin coming into the world, that law would 
be there just as perfect today as it ever was written on 
the tables of stone or in the Bible. Truth is a mighty 
power; the soul cannot get away from it. I am the Lord 
Thy God; thou shalt have no other gods before Me, is a 
truth that must stand forever. Thou shalt not take the 
name of the Lord thy God in vain, is a second truth that 

846 



TWENTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 847 

must stand forever. Remember the Sabbath Day to keep 
it holy, is a truth that the world must recognize. You 
all know that it is right to honor father and mother ; you 
all know it is right not to kill ; you know it is a truth that 
we should not commit adultery; you know it is right that 
we should not steal; that we should not covet our neigh- 
bor's house; and you know it is a truth that we should 
not even covet those things that can be coaxed away from 
home, like servants or cattle, or anything else that might 
follow you. These Ten Commandments are truths which 
lie at the bottom and foundation of all Christianity, and 
therefore, the Word of God tells us that the law is a school- 
master to bring us unto Christ. 

In harmony with these ten truths of the Ten Com- 
mandments, our epistle, the last one for the Church Year, 
contains ten great truths we should know, and the apostle 
calls attention to the fact that Ave should know them per- 
fectly. ^^For you yourselves know perfectly that the day 
of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night." This 
church at Thessalonica was rather a young church, a con- 
gregation not organized very long, but they knew some 
tilings that some old cliurches today seem to have for- 
gotten, and it is my purpose this evening to speak as if 
this were my last address to immortal souls, and having 
reached tbe last sermon in this series of the church year, 
I want to be as honest with you as I would be with my 
own children, if I were to speak to them a last word from 
my dying bed. A man might possibly be dishonest in the 
days when he hopes to remain here a long time, but surely 
he could not be dishonest in his last hour; and so the old 
saying stands, that death makes men honest. These very 
scoffers that ridicule the church and the preacher are the 
ones that are groping for something immortal and would 
like to see the little preacher that lives around the corner 
just before they pass into eternity. And so I desire in this 
last sermon of this series, to speak as if this were my last 
address, and a\ hen a man speaks his last words from his 
dying bed to his children, he is not paying much attention 
to his rhetoric. I am not here this evening to give you 
flights of oratory ; I am here to give you some things that 



848 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

you never can get away from, truths so perfectly known 
that they will follow you into all eternity. My theme is 

TEN TRUTHS GOD WANTS YOU TO KNOW PERFECTLY. 

I. The first is: The end of the world is coming. 
Some people seem to think that this world is here forever 
and ever. I would have you to understand that philos- 
ophy has never been able to tell where this world came 
from. God's Word has solved that problem. By faith 
we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word 
of God, and that Word of God that brought the worlds , 
into existence, is the same Word that tells us that this 
earth shall pass away. Jesus Christ, whom all the world 
must admit to have been a great character, even though 
they deny His divinity, said : Heaven and earth shall pass 
away, but My Word shall not pass away. Now if He was 
a great character He told the truth. If He did not tell 
the truth. He was not a great character. If He told the 
truth. He is the Son of God. If He is the Son of God, He 
knows how this earth came and how it will pass away. 

Not only did Jesus Christ Himself tell us that the end 
of the earth is coming, but as we heard in this evening's 
lesson, the apostle Peter has so graphically described what 
would take place : But the day of the Lord will come as 
a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass 
away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt 
with fervent heat." In the last Book of the Bible, Rev. 
21 :1, we have these remarkable words : "ilnd I saw a new 
heaven and a new earth : for the first heaven and the first 
earth were passed away; and there was no more sea." 
There is a truth that God wants you to know perfctly. 
The fires are already burning. No man can pass through 
the National Park of the United States without seeing the 
flames and the streams and the geysers throwing the rocks 
up into the air to tell you that the Word of God is true. 
I do not suppose the apostle Peter ever saw a geyser, or 
that he ever knew of the conditions of the earth as we 
know them today, but no man today with all his powers 
of writing and thinking and traveling can describe the 



TWENTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 849 

conditions of the earth better than the apostle Peter did. 
I say the fires are already burning and the day is coming, 
says philosophy now, as well as revelation, when this 
earth must pass aAvay. That you ought to know perfectly. 
II. You ought to know perfectly this great truth, 
that you do not know when the end is coming. There have 
been people in this world who have figured out the very 
month and to the very day, and sometimes almost to the 
hour, when the world Avas coming to an end. There have 
been foolish denominations who have even put on their 
clothing, ready to go to heaven. I do not know where 
they ever got such notions Avhen God's Word is so plain 
that no man shall know. Jesus Christ told us not only 
that no man shall know the day nor the hour, but that the 
angels in heaven do not knoAV, and not even the Son of 
man, in His state of humiliation. You will remember that 
when Jesus Christ was here on earth He was in two dif- 
ferent states — a state of humiliation, in which He did not 
make use of His divine knowledge. Now in that state, 
Jesus Christ Himself did not know when the end of the 
world Avould come. In His state of exaltation, of course 
He kncAv, but there is one great truth that God has re- 
served unto Himself. No man, no angel, not Christ Him- 
self in His state of humiliation knew the day when the 
end would come. We are told in this lesson tonight that 
He shall come like a thief in the night; He will come at 
the hour when no man expects it. There will be men in 
the saloons, drinking and drunk, the night when Christ 
shall come; there will be people on the dancing floor and 
in the ball room that night, scoffing at the Bible and at 
the Word of God ; there will be people all over this world 
that will say. When is the promise to be fulfilled, and 
where is the fulfillment, and just then, when no one is 
thinking about it, in that very hour when all will think, 
tomorrow we will do so and so, there will be a jar, and a 
thunder, and a cracking and burning, and a fire, and 'the 
world is passing to an end and no one knew it until that 
time. I want you to know perfectly that you never will 
know the day nor the hour when it is coming until it has 
come. 
54 



850 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

And I rather think it is a good thing that we do not 
know. If you knew that next year at such and such a time 
the world was coming to an end you wouldn't do another 
thing. That is one thing that God has kept to Himself. 
There would be others who would pretend to serve God, 
purely out of fear. God wants to be served with love. 

III. The next truth which God wants you to know 
perfectly, is this : That the end of your life is coming. 
All through the Scriptures you find that man's life and 
the end of the world are always compared with each 
other, and in every chapter where Jesus speaks of the 
end of the world, He also speaks of the end of life. "Be 
ye therefore ready, for in such an hour as ye think not, 
the Son of man cometh." Not only as far as the end of 
the world is concerned, but the end of your life is coming. 
Here is one truth that surely does not need very much 
elucidation. When I make the statement that the end of 
your life is coming, you know it. You know that all the 
generations before this i)ast century have died, and you 
do know that before another century has passed we all 
shall have fallen asleep. 

IV. Now then, knowing this great fact that we are 
here only for a very short time, it seems to me we ought to 
be wise, and there is another great truth that follows right 
after the foregoing, and that is, that just as we do not 
know when the end of the Avorld is coming, just so you 
do not know exactly how your end is coming, nor when. 

It is said sometimes that the Spiritualists know just 
exactly when a man is going to die. At a meeting in Bos- 
ton one time, a medium sat there and she said, "Tomorrow 
at four o'clock I will die," and sure enough at four o'clock 
the next dsij she did die, and the ncAvs was sent all over 
the world that the Spiritualists can foretell death just to 
the hour. Then some men who were rather inquisitive 
had a post mortem examination held and found that she 
had taken enough poison to kill three women, at four 
o'clock. In that way you can know pretty well when you 
are going to die, if you commit suicide ; but even then you 
may fail. God has kept that back from us to know just 
when. There are some people who are constantly telling 



TWENTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 851 

US, You will never see me again, because I am sickly and 
this will be our last visit together. Oh, I have visited 
some of these very sickly people for the last twenty years, 
and they are still living. An then we see once in a while 
some big, strong, young man that says, I will see you in 
ten years, and in ten minutes he is in eternity. Know 
this fact perfectly tonight, no difference what your disease 
may be, when death comes, it is coming as a surprise. This 
is even true in cases where we are looking for death every 
day. There are no fewer than twenty people right now 
lying upon their beds, whom I visit every week, and I feel 
certain that there are a few who will never again see their 
health, but I feel just as certain that though we see death 
coming on day by day, that when it does really come it will 
be a surprise to the family and to the one that passes into 
eternity. Know this perfectly. 

V. I would have you to know that you are lost until 
you are saved. A great many people do not know that. 
A great many people seem to think that as long as we are 
in this world we are not lost, that we never will be lost 
until that great Judgment Day comes, and then God will 
come with His club in one hand, take a man by the collar 
and say, Now you are damned. I would have you to 
understand, my friends, that God never will condemn any- 
body. If you will read the third chapter of John you will 
find that we are condemned already. Kead Paul's epistle 
to the Eomans, carefully, and you will find that the curse 
of God is on us until we are saved. Eead Christ's conver- 
sation with Nicodemus carefully, and you will find that 
every man on earth, no difference how small or how large, 
must be born again before he can see and before he can 
enter the kingdom of heaven. If you will read Paul's 
epistle correctly you will find that he says, we are by 
nature the children of wrath. If you will read the Scrip- 
tures carefully you will find that not a clean thing comes 
from an unclean thing. That which is born of fiesh is 
flesh. If the world today understood the Bible doctrine, 
the Lutheran doctrine, that man is lost by nature until he 
is saved, you would not find so many errors concerning 
baptism, and you would not find so many errors concern- 



852 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

ing original sin; you would not find people putting off 
from day to day what ought to be done just as soon as our 
children are born. Jesus Christ assures us in His Word 
that He is the only One that was ever born without sin, 
and we all know from God's Word that no sin shall enter 
heaven. A little use of the brain, together with revela- 
tion, ought to convince any man that God is not going to 
soil heaven with a sinner. Therefore, I want you perfectly 
to know tonight that if you have not been saved you 
are lost; you are as much lost tonight as if you were in 
hell; the curse of God is as much on you right now as it 
ever can be until you are a saved man. Why, some one 
says, do you mean to say that God would curse a child? 
No. I say a child is cursed. God is here to save it. Nor 
do I say that God will damn a child, but I say before it 
can be saved God has got to save it. Jesus said, The Son 
of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost, 
not that which is saved. Oh, that the world understood 
this great truth, that man is in a lost condition and will 
remain so until he is saved. 

VI. God would have you to know, in the sixth place, 
this truth perfectly, that it isn't God's will that you 
should remain lost. 

As I said awhile ago, some people picture God as if 
He were a great angry Judge that delighted in condemn- 
ing people. If I understand the Bible, and I believe I 
understand it a little, God, the Father in heaven, does not 
Avant anybody lost, or He surely would not have given up 
His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die for the sins of 
the world. If I Avere to meet a man living within a mile 
and a half of this city, and I were to go out and visit him 
and find him all alone, and say. Where is your family? 
and he AA^ere to tell me his aA' ife is lying out in yonder ceme- 
tery; and I would say. Where is your son; have you none? 
Yes, I had one fine young man and when the war came 
on, though he Avas under age, he volunteered to go, I said. 
My boy, you are the only son I have got but go, and fight 
for your country; and then he went, and he died on the 
battlefield, and out by the side of his mother's grave stands 
his tombstone, but his body was never found; if I were 



TWENTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 853 

then to stand up and say to you, That man is a rebel ; if I 
were to say to you, That man does not love his country, 
you would say. You are a liar; a man that gives up his 
only son to die for his country, loves his country; and I 
am here tonight to say to you as a messenger of God, and 
on the authority of His Word that shall stand though the 
heavens and the earth shall pass away, that God so loved 
the world that He gave His only begotten Son that who- 
soever believeth in Him shall not perish but have ever- 
lasting life. Then I think you will have to admit that 
God, the Father, does not want you to be lost. 

It is not the will of God, the Son, that you should 
be lost; for remember, my friends, that Jesus Christ had 
His life in His own hands. Eemember, that when He came 
He did not come against His own will. Eemember, it was 
He who said, I go to Jerusalem that I may die and the 
third day arise again from the dead. When they came to 
arrest Him, and with one word He spoke to them, and the 
soldiers all fell down as dead, it seems to me that any 
reasonable man should know that Jesus would not need 
to have been arrested. If He who stood by the grave of 
Lazarus and said. Come forth, and he arose, had said to 
all those who tried to nail Him to the cross on Calvary's 
hill, So far and no farther, you know they could not have 
crucified Him. But behold the Lamb of God, that taketh 
away the sins of the world, merely saying, Here is My 
almighty arm; I will show you that I am almighty now, 
not by what I do, but by what I do not do ; I will not use 
that arm to knock you down, but I will hold it still ; nail 
it fast; and here is the other hand; nail it fast; here are 
My feet; nail them fast; and here is My head; put on the 
crown of thorns; and here is My face; spit in it if you 
want to, and buffet Me if you like to ; here is My heart ; I 
will bare My breast to you; thrust the spear into it and 
make the blood and the water come forth, that all the 
physicians in the world may know that I am dead; hang 
Me for three hours in the sunlight, that the world may 
know that I am the Savior ; and then at noon the sun shall 
go down that the world may know that all nature and the 
works of My creation are in sympathy with Me, says 



854 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

Christ. I will die willingly that you might not be lost. 
Do you mean to tell me that Jesus Christ, who died for 
you, is willing that you should be lost? 

And do you mean to tell me that the Holy Spirit, 
who has given us His Word, and today throughout the 
ministry and in the means of grace all over the w^orld is 
calling, and calling, and calling for you to come to Christ 
and be saved, is willing that you should be lost? Oh, 
know perfectly tonight, that if you ever are lost it is not 
by the consent of the Father, not by the consent of Jesus, 
not by the consent of the Holy Ghost. 

VII. I would have you know that God wants you to 
know that you are to be saved through Jesus Christ. "For 
God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salva- 
tion by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that, 
whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with 
Him. Wherefore, comfort yourselves together, and edify 
one another, even as also ye do." 

God has appointed you — for what? Not for wrath, 
but that you might be saved through the Lord Jesus 
Christ. Where else will you find a Savior? Twelve years 
ago in the great city of Chicago, we had a meeting or par- 
liament of all the religions of the world; we had all the 
heathen religions represented there, but of all religions, 
there was only one that could say to a poor sinner, here 
is your Savior. With all the false religions in the world 
there is absolutely no answer to the question, How can a 
man be saved? outside of Christianity. Then, my dear 
friends, if the Jews have no Savior for you, do you want 
to worship with them? If the Unitarian does not know 
Christ as the God-man, are you going to worship with 
him? If any church in the world points you to your own 
morality for your hope and salvation, are you going to 
trust in that? The great trouble with so many people 
today is that they have heard so much about the Father- 
hood of God and the brotherhood of man ; they have heard 
so much of the false teaching that has been taught in 
organizations that have no Christ in them, that they begin 
to think that if they just walk so and so, and do so and so, 
then they are going to be saved because they are so good. 



TWENTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 855 

If one man on earth can be saved because he is so good, 
evevj other man can ; and if there is salvation for one man 
by being so good without Christ, there ought to be salva- 
tion for every man without Christ; and if any man on 
earth can be saved without Christ dying on Calvary, then 
I say that God Himself did the dumb thing when He let 
His Son die there for our sins. My friends, no difference 
if an angel from heaven came to proclaim any other Gos- 
pel than I preach to you tonight, I would say with the 
apostle Paul, let that angel be accursed. There is no other 
salvation outside of Jesus Christ; and I do not care if 
you had lived so good and holy all your life that you had 
only committed one sin, that one sin would damn you for- 
ever. But remember, you do not need to commit a sin to 
be damned; you are born damned. You are born lost. 
If that is not true this Bible isn't true ; and if that is not 
true then philosophy is not true. You cannot bring a 
clean thing out of an unclean thing. How can sinful 
parents give birth to a sinless child? Any one should 
know these truths, and so again I lay down deeply the 
foundation of truth, which I know you know perfectly, 
that God wants you saved through Jesus Christ. 

VIII. God wants you to know perfectly that until 
you are saved you are perfectly willing every moment to 
be eternally lost. 

If I were to go around in this house tonight and take 
one after the other by the hand and say. Are you now 
willing to be eternally lost? you would say, No, sir! I 
have never yet met that man in my life who said, I am 
willing right now to be eternally lost; and yet there are 
people by the hundreds and thousands who will tell you 
that they are not Christians; who will tell you that they 
have never taken instruction in God's Word to know how 
to be saved ; they will tell you they are not baptized ; they 
will tell you some time or other they hope to be saved. I 
want to bring you the truth now. I want you to know 
perfectly that right now, in this hour, if you are not will- 
ing to be saved now, you are now willing to be eternally 
lost, and you are willing to remain eternally lost until 
you are willing to be saved. The very fact that you are not 



856 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

saved now is evidence that you wouldn't care if you were 
lost now; and the very fact that you want to try to fool 
your God is strong evidence that you are perfectly willing 
not to be prepared to meet Him; and just as long as you 
are willing to be unprepared^ you are willing to be lost; 
and just as soon as 'you are willing to be lost at all, you 
are Avilling to be eternally lost, for there is no other lost 
condition. Oh, that God would open your eyes tonight, 
that God would help you to see what you are willing to 
do. I Avant you to know perfectly tonight, and your own 
reasoning is too good to get away from it, that you are 
either saved now or you are willing to be saved or willing 
to be lost forever. You cannot get away from these truths. 

IX. I Avant you to know that God wants you to 
know that a lost life is a perfectly worthless life of dark- 
ness. ^'But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that 
day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the chil- 
dren of light, and the children of the day; we are not of 
the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, 
as do others, but let us watch and be sober. For they 
that sleep, sleep in the night, and they that be drunken 
are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, 
be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love ; and 
for an helmet the hope of salvation." 

In other words, says the apostle, if we want to be 
Christians at all, let us be soldiers for Christ. Put on 
the helmet of salvation; put on the breastplate of faith 
and love; put on the whole armor of righteousness; take 
the sword of the Spirit in our hands ; let us go forth as 
men of God and let our light shine before men that they 
may see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven. 
But, on the other hand, there is a life of darkness, a 
worthless life of darkness, and that is not worth living. 

Now I want to ask you this question : Suppose you 
are a father and you are not a Christian, what are you 
worth? What are you worth to yourself? Poor, lost hus- 
band in the family, what are you worth to your wife? 
What are you worth to your children? My friends, I say 
it tonight, and under the eye of God, if I had the choice 
to be born or not to be born, I would say if I were to be 



TWENTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 857 

begotten and born and live in a family with an ungodly 
father, I would say, blot me out of existence. I pity from 
the bottom of my li^art the children that have been 
brought into the world and are sitting at the table of an 
ungodly father. What are you worth? By every action of 
yours you say to your children, You might just as well be 
children of the devil as to be a Christian like mother. 
You are saying by your actions, What is the use to go to 
church? What is the use to learn God's Word? What is 
the use to love Christ? I don't. Oh, worthless father in 
the family, blotting out all the sunshine of hope that there 
is I What is the father worth in the home if he is an 
ungodly man? I say a man who is no Christian is un- 
godly, because ungodly means gottlos, to be lost from God. 

What is he worth to his neighbors? Oh, if we would 
stop and think how our neighbors are watching us. One 
good man in a neighborhood can transform a whole neigh- 
borhood; and one bad man in a neighborhood may trans- 
form that whole neighborhood. I can take you to a place 
not twenty miles aAva}^ from liere, where one bad man has 
ruined a Avhole neighborhood; and I can take you to a 
place in a city where one person going in the right spirit 
has transformed them all to children of light. What is 
an ungodly man in a neighborhood worth? A child of dark- 
ness. Why, I would hate to send my boy to work a day for 
an ungodly man; lie is not safe in his presence; for what 
a man is, he teaches, I care not who he is; a man that is 
an inlidel is going to teach infidelity wherever he can; a 
man that is a Christian is going to teach Christ wher- 
ever he can; a man that has got a bad character is going 
to try to make other people bad. 

What is a bad man in the hoiue worth? What is a 
bad woman in the home Avorth? What is a woman in 
the home worth if she is not a Christian? Oh, if you 
were to go into those countries today where there is no 
Christianity and see the slaves among the women, see how 
womanhood is crushed down, you would begin to thank 
God for a Christian land and for Christian churches. It 
does seem to me that the meanest person on earth to 



858 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

ridicule religion and Christianity is woman, who has 
been lifted up only by the cross of Christ. 

What is a boy worth in any neighborhood if he does 
not want the light and the truth? What is the girl 
worth that is not a virtuous Christian? I want you all 
to know perfectly tonight that God knows that a lost 
life is a perfectly worthless life of darkness. 

X. And God also wants you to know perfectly that 
to be a true Christian is the greatest joy and privilege 
in the universe. We are told in these words to comfort 
one another Avith the great truth that the children of 
light are a glory in this world and a blessing. I make 
the statement this evening that to be a professed Chris- 
tian and a true Christian is one of the greatest blessings 
in all the universe. It has well been said by one poet 
that if an angel from heaven were to come down and find 
as sweeping the crossing of the street, we would not ex- 
change places with him; and so I say that to be a child 
of God, a follower of the Lamb, to be a faithful Christian, 
means to have a blessing that no angel ever had. When 
life is past and death is o'er and the resurrection has 
come and passed, and the Judgment is gone, and we are 
standing in the presence of our God, Oh, we will see 
soDiething in those marks in the Savior-s hands that no 
angel eter saw. The angels of God know that Christ was 
crucified; they know that He was in Bethlehem, and 
they sang songs of peace; they know He arose from the 
dead, and they rolled the stone away; but there Is no 
angel either in hell or heaven that knows what it means 
to be saved when you are lost, and to be redeemed, to be 
a child of God, to live a life of salvation among fallen 
men, to say a Avord that will lead somebody out of dark- 
ness into light, to lift up humanity, to hold up Christ 
and Him crucified to a dying, perishing world, to teach 
mothers the right way to live, to teach fathers how to 
be husbands and how to be fathers to their children, to 
lift up the homes of our country, to spread the glorious 
news of the truth to the world that God loves us; to lift 
humanity up from the fallen, degraded slums into which 
Satan has pushed them ; to stand up for right at any cost ; 



TWENTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 859 

to live though we die; to see through the grave; to look 
into eternity, fearless of death, fearless of anything that 
may come, because God is our life, and our hope, and 
our salvation. This is a privilege that no one else can 
get in all eternity, but those that are saved. Oh, if we 
all understood the joy of being a child of God, we wouldn't 
hunt uj) the silly notions of the world. I am sure there 
are young men in the world today that think if they 
were to come into the church of God and become Chris- 
tians, that then all their joy would be gone. Oh, poor 
blind souls! They have never even tasted joy. They do 
not know what it is. All the whirl of the dance and all 
the laughter of the world is nothing more than the bells 
of hell to drown conscience. That is not joy. Joy is 
to know that by the grace of God we have been saved. 
Joy is to have peace with God and peace with man. Joy 
means to know that we are in the right for time and 
forever. Joy means to have a clear conscience, washed 
clear by the blood of the Lamb. And I would invite you 
all, if these were my last words ever to be spoken, I would 
invite you all to study Luther's catechism until you have 
found the way plain and found your way to Christ; and 
then be faithful until death and receive the crown of 
eternal life; and if you will do that, you will spend the 
greater part of eternity thanking God that you were 
here tonight. Let us rise in prayer. 

PRAYER. 

O God, our heavenly Father, we thank Thee for the printing press 
which is able to make Thy Word spread from shore to shore ; we 
thank Thee for the gifted ones who are able to take down Thy message 
from Thy messenger and give it to the world. We thank Thee for a 
Providence which has spared our lives and has blessed our ministry 
throughout the past two years ; and we thank Thee for the privilege of 
proclaiming Thy truth to these immortal souls this evening. And now. 
Lord our God do Thou be with this message ; send it out that it may 
win souls for heaven, and do Thou help us to know perfectly the ten 
truths which we have heard, that we may ever walk in the path of 
right and ever shun the wrong. O Father in heaven, do Thou help us 
tonight to be touched with Thy mercy to us, and to become very merci- 
ful to others. Help us to realize that Thou hast not come into the world 
to appoint us unto wrath, but unto life eternal through Jesus Christ. 



860 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

Help us to realize tonight, O God, that Thy love is so great that only 
by bleeding and dying couldst Thou manifest it to us as Thou wouldst 
have us understand it. And now we pray Thee that those who have 
heard this truth tonight may not only hold fast to it themselves but 
spread it among others ; yes, every one who has heard these truths 
spread them among the neighbors until many shall hear of Thee and 
of Thy glorious life and liberty which Thou art willing that we shall 
enjoy. Father in heaven, do Thou save us all. We ask this in the 
name of Jesus Christ who taught us in that beautiful prayer to call for 
all things that we need for our bodies and for our souls : 

Our Father who art in heaven; Hallowed be Thy name; Thy 
kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven; Give 
us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation; 
But dehver us from evil; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power^ 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



ARE CHURCH SUPPERS RIGHT? 
Psalm 24:1. 

'HE earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof; the world, and 
' they that dwell therein. 

Sanctif}^ us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved in Christ: 

Congregations, the same as Glir-istian individuals, 
must be in the right if they expect to succeed. There is no 
such thing as success against the will of God. There is 
no such a thing as failure when we are in harmony with 
God's Avill. And this is just as true Avith regard to minor 
things as to the major. There is not a congregation in 
the State of Ohio, no difference to which denomination 
it belongs, in which there are not some people who are 
opposed to Avhat is generally known as church suppers; 
and I may be just as safe in saying that there are very 
few congregations in which there are not some people 
who want church suppers, and therefore it is a question 
in almost every individual congregation, is it right to have 
them? I have so often called attention to this fact be- 
fore, that A\']ierever there is a question that is always a 
question, there must be something back of it, or it 
wouldn't be a question. You never hear any one going 
up and down among the congregation asking whether it 
is right to sing a hymn; asking the question. Is it right 
to pray? Is it right to honor father and mother? There 
are questions that are settled, and settled forever. Those 
things that are questions usually have something about 
them that is not right, or there would be no question. 

Now it is not my purpose this evening to speak on 
this question having in mind this or that individual, or 

861 



862 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

this or that church, or even anything that I have ever 
said before this evening. I have little use for a man who 
simply thinks that what he said two years ago must stand 
whether it was right or wrong. I had hardly arrived at 
Mansfield until the question was put directly to me by 
prominent members of this church, Where do you stand 
on the church supper question? showing me plainly that 
it was a question long before I came here, and it has been 
a question ever since; and few have been the Sundays 
in which I have not been cornered somewhere to find out 
where I stood on such and such a point of this supper 
question, and I tried for a long time to evade the ques- 
tion for the reason that it was comparatively a new thing 
in my practical ministry. This is the first church I have 
ever served that had suppers. We never needed any in 
any of the congregations where I have been, and so I said 
to myself, I will Avait; I Avill see; I will go; I will eat 
with them, and I will examine these things from all sides, 
and whenever I come to a conclusion they will hear from 
me. Now I have very carefully, especially in the last few 
weeks, studied the Word of God prayerfully, with the 
disposition of mind to start with, that I do not know 
whether it is right or wrong, in order that I might not be 
prejudiced. I said to myself. If these things are right 
we all ought to know it; and if these things are wrong, 
we all ought to know it. Why should Christian people 
who are directed entirely by the Word of God, have dif- 
ferent opinions about things that must be settled some- 
where in the Bible? And so I have gone through the Bible 
from beginning to end, and will only be able to give you 
a very little result of the investigation. I intend to 
ask the question tonight, and answer it : 

ARE CHURCH SUPPERS RIGHT? 

But sometimes some questions can never be answered, 
because people have not laid the right foundation. For 
instance, I would never argue the question of whether it 
is right or wrong to belong to the Masons with a Jew; 
I would not argue that question with a man who simply 



ARE CHUKCfl SUPPERS RIGHT? 863 

does not know what the doctrines of the Church are; I 
would not debate that question with any man who him- 
self has never been thoroughly catechized ; for the trouble 
with too many people is that they have not got a founda- 
tion that enables them to see what others see who have 
laid the foundations. The same is true with regard to 
the question of whether church suppers are right or not, 
there are certain foundations that must be examined first, 
and the very foundation of all church suppers lies in my 
text: '^The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof; 
the world, and they that dwell therein.'' 

I. This world belongs to God. Could anybody deny 
that proposition? There are some people in this world 
who think that they own part of it; there are some people 
again who think that they own only a part of what they 
claim, and God owns the rest. How many professed Chris- 
tians are there in the world who do acknowledge the exact 
truth that they own nothing; that it all belongs to God? 
You can readily see that from these different foundations 
you would have different arguments. I claim, on the 
authority of my text, and on the authority of good reason, 
and on the authority of all Providence in history, that 
all the earth and the fulness thereof belong to God; and 
if that is true, it will help us to answer our question 
in the future. What makes me believe this? 

I believe it, because it is His by creation. You must 
remember that man was not the first being that was 
created in the world, but the last. If there ever was 
any gold created, it was created before there was a man. 
To whom did the gold belong before there was an Adam 
and Eve? To whom did those shores belong of those four 
rivers that started out from the Garden of Eden? To 
wliom did the gold belong on which shone the sun before 
there ever was a man to behold its brightness? I am 
sure that He who said. Let there be light, and there was 
light; He who said. Let there be a firmament, and there 
was a firmament; He who said. Let there be vegetation, 
and there was vegetation; He who said. Let there be a 
sun to rule the day and a moon to rule the night; that 



864 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

same God created all things, and by the right of creation 
has a right to claim it. 

"The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof; 
the world, and they that dwell therein." Usually a man 
possesses what he owns until he wills it away. I hold 
before me tonight the Will of my God. Sometimes we call 
it the Old Testament and the New Testament. When you 
make your will you make your testament; and I look 
into this Testament and find out what God has done with 
His possessions, and I do not find anywhere that He has 
ever willed away one dollar of His gold or of His silver. 

1 find, for instance, as I read this Book, the following 
items taken from His Will: Melchizedek said: "Blessed 
be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and 
earth.'' (Gen. 14:19). I read from Deut. 10:14: "Be- 
hold the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the Lord's 
thy God, the earth also, w^ith all that therein is." I read 
from my text: "The earth is the Lord's and the fulness 
thereof ; the world, and they that dwell therein." Haggai 

2 :8 : "The silver is mine and the gold is mine, saith the 
Lord of hosts." 1 Cor. 6 :19 : "Ye are not your own ; for 
ye are bought with a price." 

Now from these words we not only learn that God 
'Claims the heavens and the earth as His, but we are His 
hj creation, and no man has a right to say, I own myself. 
And as I go back in this Will toward the end, and look at 
the codicil, if you might call it so, I find these words : 
(Kev. 22 :18-19) : "If any man shall add unto these things, 
God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in 
this book : and if any man shall take away from the words 
of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part 
out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from 
the things which are written in this book." If there is 
anything plain, it is this, that God claimed the heavens 
and the earth by creation. When making His will He 
said He never would give them up. They are His. 

Not only is it true that all these things belong to 
God by creation and His will, but it is just as true that 
they belong to Him by Providence. It is sometimes hard 
for us to conceive the oreat fact that in less than one 



ARE CHURCH SUPPERS RIGHT? 865 

century every man on earth will be sleeping under the 
ground. No wonder that Xerxes of old wept when he saw 
his large army and remembered that in a very short time 
they would all be among the armies of the dead. If man 
could possess the world, why would he not keep it? If 
you can possess what is your own, why do you not hold 
fast to it forever and forever? But when John D. Kocke- 
feller or one of the Rothschilds die, they die just as 
empty handed as poor Lazarus at the gate of the rich man. 
I repeat it, my friends, if man owns the earth why doesn't 
he keep it? Providence is going to settle this question 
for every man, that the earth is the Lord's and the fulness 
thereof. 

II. Now then, when we begin the argument from 
the greater to the smaller admission that all the world 
belongs to God, I am sure that you are compelled by the 
severest logic to admit the second fact which I now state, 
and that is : This temple belongs to God, — Its structure ; 
its doctrines; its support. 

The very structure of this church belongs to God. 
I would have you to understand that the first great taber- 
nacle was planned by God and not by man ; furthermore, 
that He planned it according to the great house which He 
built. The Apostle Paul tells us that at one time a cer- 
tain man, referring to himself, was lifted up to the third 
heaven. Now whether he meant the skies as the first 
heaven, and the sidereal heaven as the second, and the 
eternal home of the saints as the third; or whether he 
meant this earth that shall become the new heaven as 
the court, and the distance from here to the heaven above 
as the holy place, and heaven itself the Holy of Holies, I 
do not know^ ; but he divided the whole great universe into 
three departments. When God gave the command to 
build the tabernacle. He had it built the same way; and 
when the great church temple was built in Jerusalem, 
God laid the plan and told them just how it should be 
l)uilt. Now you will find that from the Garden of Eden 
down to the destruction of the temple at Jerusalem, God 
gave the command for all His altars and all His temples. 
The temple of God here on earth is a structure planned 
55 



866 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

by Him, whom some organizations please to call the great 
Architect of the universe. 

I would call your attention just for a moment to the 
service of the Lutheran Church in laying a corner stone 
and in dedicating the church. When the corner-stone of 
this church was laid, the following words were read by 
the officiating pastor: '^We do now lay this corner stone 
as a foundation of the First English Evangelical Lutheran 
Church, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and 
of the Holy Ghost. May true faith and piety and brotherly 
love ever dwell here, and may this place be dedicated to 
prayer and to the preaching of the Gospel and the 
ministry of the sacraments of our Lord Jesus Christ, who 
liveth and reigneth with the Father and the Holy Ghost, 
true God, from everlasting to everlasting." I read this 
service for the purpose of stirring up the minds of some 
people who generally imagine that a church is only from 
the floor up to the ceiling. We have some people who 
imagine that just as soon as you get into the basement of 
the church, that that part was not dedicated to God. 
Now I want you to understand that you did not lay the 
cornerstone in the building ; you laid it in the foundation ; 
and when you laid that foundation, you dedicated the 
whole foundation, not only down to the ground, but 
down under the ground, to the Lord God in His service 
and His service only; and when that corner stone was 
laid, it was laid with the view that this shall be the foun- 
dation of a great house of God that is to be built, and 
when Jesus Christ w^as pleased to give Himself a beau- 
tiful name. He said that He was the Cornerstone, not 
the steeple; He was the Cornerstone in the basement, not 
a brick in the tower; and it does seem to me that this 
ought to help us to see really what a temple of God is. 
When we come to the dedicatory service the following 
prayer was offered ( Compare Ministerial Acts 131-132) : 
"Almighty and everlasting God, let Thy favor be upon this 
house which we have built for Thy glory, to be a memo- 
rial to Thy name, a dwelling place for Thine honor, and a 
house of prayer for Thy people. Accept it, O Lord, as 
Thine own, and vouchsafe unto us Thv holiness to the end 



ARE CHURCH SUPPERS RIGHT? 867 

that our going in and coming out may be blessed from 
this time forth, even forevermore, through Jesus Christ, 
our Lord and Savior. Amen/' Now it does seem to me 
that that sets apart the temple of God as a building alone 
for His honor, for the administration of His holy sacra- 
ments, and for prayer. 

Not only is it true that the structure is God's, but 
I would call your attention to the fact that the doc- 
trines are God's. What are the doctrines of this church? 
You can find them in the little catechism of Luther; the 
Ten Commandments; the Apostles' Creed; the Lord's 
Prayer; Holy Baptism; the Office of the Keys, together 
with the Lord's Supper, as given in the Word of God, 
which is itself the Will of God, making known to us our 
Savior, through whom we can live as the best citizens 
in this world and become citizens on high. Now we 
hold to the inspiration of the Word of God from begin- 
ning to end; we hold to baptism for every soul that shall 
enter heaven, as God's plan; we hold that communicants 
should receive the Lord's Supper, and consequently that 
these doctrines are God's doctrines, and this church was 
not built for the promulgation of any error, or, as Peter 
declared in his second letter, of "damnable heresies;" 
this church of God was built for no other purpose than 
the proclamation of the law and the Gospel as recorded 
in the Inspired Word. 

Not only is it true that these doctrines are God's, 
l3ut it is also true that the support of the temple is God's. 
Now a great many people have false ideas about the sup- 
porting of a church. They seem to think that we support 
the church, when the fact is that God has always sup- 
ported His own church. If you would understand the 
text. The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof; 
the world and they that dwell therein, you surely would 
soon see the correct conclusion that God has made ar- 
rangements to support His church. How has He done 
it? If you will follow the story of the Bible carefully 
you will find that from the beginning of the world until 
the end of it. He arranged that the people should be- 
come stewards, and give a certain part of that which was 



868 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

placed in their hands for the support of His temple; 
otherwise you would not understand at all what it meant 
when Cain and Abel offered sacrifices. Whoever told 
them to offer sacrifices? God must have done it. Now 
I have got one light on the difference between Cain's and 
Abel's sacrifices, during this investigation, that I never 
had before. I knew very well that Cain's sacrifice was 
not pleasing to God, and I always supposed the reason 
was because he brought fruit instead of a lamb, because 
a lamb, you know, is the only one of the two mentioned 
that has blood, and where there is no shedding of blood 
there is no remission of sin. I always supposed the 
reason that Cain's sacrifice was not acceptable to God 
was because he refused to bring something that had blood, 
and chose fruit instead. Now, that may be the reason 
yet, but I have discovered on very close investigation, 
that there was another reason. When you study what 
God said to Cain, when he began to hang his head, and 
feel displeased, and compare that with Heb. 11 A, where 
God, through the author of that epistle, says that Abel 
offered a more excellent sacrifice, you will discover that 
Cain was a church member that refused to bring the 
offering that God demanded of him. He was one of 
those men who, rather than bring a lamb, or bring a 
tenth of his income, virtually said: a little apple will 
do, and so he brought a little fruit, and said, God don't 
need what He wants ; but Abel brought what God wanted. 
The one sacrifice was pleasing; the other was not. Why? 
Because the one was willing to let God's Church be sup- 
ported as He had planned it and the other was not. 

When we come on down in history we find that there 
was a little war down at Sodom and Gomorrah, and 
Abraham started out and recaptured his nephew Lot, and 
brought back the spoil, and Melchizedek began to call 
out : "Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor 
of heaven and earth." Then what did Abraham do? He 
said to the Iiigh priest, Here is the one-tenth of my in- 
come. Where did Abraham learn that? Surely he learned 
it from God. And right here let me call attention to the 
fact that there is not a heathen nation on earth that 



ARE CHURCH SUPPERS RIGHT? 869 

does not sacrifice tlie one-tenth to some of their gods. 
Where did they learn it? It has come down from the 
very Garden of Eden to the human race. 

We find Jacob sleeping with his head upon a stone 
and in that night he sees a ladder reaching to heaven, 
and he hears the Father calling down to him, and in 
the morning he arises and says, Surely the Lord God 
is here, and he dedicated that little stone as the foun- 
dation of the future church; and he called the place 
Bethel, and said if the Lord would take care of him he 
would henceforth give Him the one-tenth of his income, 
and he did, and Laban prospered because Jacob gave the 
one-tenth, God took care of His temple. 

You can follow from that story on through the Old 
Testament, and you will find that the Jews of old never 
gave less than the one-tenth of their income to the Lord 
their God, as God's share of His own possessions. God 
provides for the temple. 

And when we come to the lesson which I read to- 
night, in the last book of the Old Testament, the ques- 
tion is: '^Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed 
Me. But ye say. Wherein have we robbed Thee? In 
tithes and offerings." You all know^ that a tithe means 
the one-tenth. God declared on the last page of His 
Old Testament Will that the people had robbed Him 
because they had not given the one-tenth of their income 
to the support of His temple; and then goes on to say: 
"Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed Me, 
even this whole nation.'^ The average Christian seems 
to think when he has a dollar in his pocket it is his own, 
to spend as he pleases, and does not remeniDer that the 
one-tenth of all his income is God's own provision for 
the support of His temple and the support of His work. 
We often look around in our orchards and fields and 
wonder why the blight has struck this tree and this 
vine; we wonder why the grasshoppers have destroyed 
these crox3S. My friends, we have the ansAver in God's 
Word : "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that 
there may be meat in Mine house, and prove Me now 
herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you 



870 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

the windoAvs of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that 
there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will 
rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not 
destroy the. fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine 
east her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord 
of hosts. And all nations shall call you blessed." Does 
it pay you to keep that one-tenth in your pocket, when 
God goes and destroys your crops? Does it pay you to 
try to rob your God? I want you to understand that 
when God has got a one-tenth interest in your business 
He is not going to let it fail. If I wanted to go into 
business Avith any one tonight I would want to go in 
with a man I could depend on, and the reason some of 
us never succeed in this world is because we go into 
business without God. Take God into your business as 
a partner and that business cannot fail until God fails. 
Some one will say, That is Old Testament doctrine. 
Very well, let us see what the New Testament says. Matt. 
23 :23 : "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! 
for ye pay tithe (one-tenth) of mint and anise and cum- 
min, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, 
judgment, mercy, and faith : these ought ye to have done, 
and not to leave the other undone:' If that does not 
settle the tithe question in the New Testament, nothing 
can. Speaking of tithes Jesus Christ says to those old 
Pharisees, Your giving the tenth is all right, and you 
ought to do it, but do not leave these other things undone. 
Will you not all agree with me that in Old Testament 
times there was not the great demand for the support 
of the great Church of God that there is now ; when the 
whole civilized Christian land was a little Holy Land 
only 40 miles wide and about 150 miles long, and now 
the gates of all the heathen nations have been broken 
down, until the whole world is crying out, Come over 
and help us! are not the demands ten times, a thousand 
times, a million times, greater than they ever were be- 
fore? But in Old Testament times the Jews reached 
down into their pockets and never gave less than the 
one-tenth of their income, and they are doing it today 
yet, while Ave professed Christians instead of that are 



ARE CHURCH SUPPERS RIGHT? 871 

reaching down into our pockets and trying to find a little 
copper with a hole in it, the smallest little thing we can 
find, to support the great temple of God, and then trying 
to establish methods God never did establish in order 
to carry on His work. 

This being true, that the world is God's, that the 
temple belongs to God, with all its structure, with its 
doctrines, and with its support, I now come to the ques- 
tion. Are church suppers right? And I am going to 
answer it according to the Scriptures and say. Some are 
not, and Some are right. 

1. What are some of these church suppers that are 
not right? 

Some are as bad as idolatry. Where do I find that 
in God-s Word? Turn to I Cor. 11:18-22: "For first of 
all, vvlien ye come together in the church, I hear that 
there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it. 
For there must be also heresies among you, that they 
which are approved may be made manifest among you. 
When ye come together therefore into one place, this is 
not to eat the Lord's Supper. For in eating every one 
taketh before the other his own supper ; and one is hungry 
and another is drunken. What? have ye not houses to 
eat and to drink in? or despise ye the church of God, 
and shame them that have not? What shall I say to 
3'ou? shall I praise you in this? I praise you not." Here 
we have an instance where the Corinthians instead of 
celebrating the Lord's Supper made a feast in the house 
of God, and Paul takes them to task. Compare this just 
one moment with Phil. 3 :18-19. Sometimes we are crit- 
icized for being a little plain. I was criticized a few 
weeks ago for saying a certain word over in St. Matthews 
church, and I just happened to get a word that Paul put 
into this letter to the Philippians: "For many walk, of 
whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weep- 
ing, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ; 
whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and 
whose glory is their shame, who mind earthly things." 
If that is not idolatry I don't know what is, and the 
lowest idolatrv I think that can be found in all the world, 



872 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

is the man that worships his stomach. Now we have got 
a little regard yet for a man that will get down in his 
ignorance and worship before a beautiful statue made 
of stone; we have some regard for the man that possibly 
will rise above the God that has ears and hears not, that 
has eyes and sees not, and worships his own children; 
or there are some who worship even their own intellect; 
now worshipping your own intellect is not nearly so low 
as to go right into the center of your body and hunt out 
something that has neither bone nor blood, and just stuff 
it with anything you can find for a quarter and say, This 
is my little god. There are, I say, suppers in this world 
that are as bad as idolatr}^ And am I wrong? I could 
mention you the names of at least twelve people — there 
may be hundreds of them — whom I have seen come to 
our suppers time and again, and sit down there and eat, 
and eat, and eat, and go home, and never think of step- 
ping up here to the service. If those people are not 
stomach worshippers, I know no other name for them, 
and I say that such suppers are Avorse than any form 
of idolatry I have ever found. 

There are some kinds that are as bad as a gambling 
den. Let us compare Word of God with Word of God. 
John 2 :13-16 : Eemember that this is but the beginning 
of Christ's ministry. "And the Jews' passover was at 
hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and found in 
the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and 
the changers of money sitting; and when He had made 
a scourge of small cords. He drove them all out of the 
temple, and the sheep and the oxen, and poured out 
the changers' money, and overthrew the tables; and said 
unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence ; make 
not My Father's house a house of merchandise." This, 
you remember, was the beginning of Christ's ministry. 
The reason He gives that He drove them out was because 
the church of God was not a business house, nor a mer- 
chant house. I hear some people say. Why, don't you 
sell hymn-books; don't you sell devotional books in the 
church? Yes. And I want to tell you just how much 
we have made out of the whole business. I am just 



ARE CHURCH SUPPERS RIGHT? 873 

exactly four hundred dollars poorer today than when I 
came to Mansfield; that is the merchandise part of my 
business. Would you like to do that kind of business? 
There is no merchandise business done by the pastor of 
this church; he has lost more money in books than he 
ever got. I claim that we must distinguish now between 
things that must be done for the glory of God and simply 
carrying on a hotel for the purpose of making money. 
This was the beginning of Christ's ministry; let us go 
to the close of His ministry. 

Matt. 21 :12,13. "And Jesus went into the temple of 
God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the 
temple, and overthrew the tables of the money changers, 
and the seats of them that sold doves, and said unto them. 
It is written. My house shall be called the house of 
prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves. And the 
blind and the lame came to Him in the temple and He 
healed them." I just w^ant you to notice one thing, in 
the beginning of Christ's ministry they just did business; 
in three year's time they were carrying on a gambling 
den, making the house of prayer a house of thieves. 

Now, my friends, I do not want you to draw the 
conclusion that that has ever been done in this church. 
I do not believe I have ever seen anything in the gambling 
line in this church, but we do know that many things have 
been done in the churches in this country that would not 
stand the test in any court of common pleas. When a few 
w^eeks ago the ministerial association of Columbus went 
to Mayor Jeffries and said, "We beg of you to stop raffling 
for turkeys on Thanksgiving Day," the honorable Mayor 
said, "Just as soon as you preachers stop the gambling 
in your churches I will stop it down in the saloons." I 
can imagine I see those preachers coughing behind their 
hands and saying. We didn't think about that. I have 
heard about a sweet cake that wasn't worth fifty cents 
sold for fifteen dollars; I have heard about a quilt you 
w^ouldn't have on your bed sold for twenty-five dollars, 
by churches ; and then w^e think we are doing God's work. 
T tell you, my dear friends, if the church of God is ever 



874 THE ETERNAI. EPISTLE. 

to wield the influence it must wield for the good of this 
world, it has got to stop gambling. 

Some are worse than a poor house. I refer you again 
to Malaehi 3 :8 : "Will a man rob God? Yet ye have rob- 
bed Me.'' If I were to come to your house this week and 
begin to beg for John D. Kockefeller, you would think 
I was crazy, and yet we have learned tonight from our 
text that the earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof. 
The temple is God's; the gold is God's; the silver is 
God's; and then we go out into the world and ask every 
Tom, Dick and Harry to come to the church supper and 
help support this poor God of ours. I do not believe that 
God ever blessed a single dollar that came from any 
man that did not love Him, and I do not believe He wants 
any churches to prosper, to get their funds from the chil- 
dren of the devil. I do not believe that our God has 
gotten so poor yet that we have got to beg for Him. When 
we once learn God's eternal truth that the earth is the 
Lord's and the fulness thereof, we will be willing to 
hand back to Him what He needs for the upbuilding of 
His kingdom; and I am satisfied that if we would study 
this text of mine thoroughly and prayerfully, we would 
get rid of our miserly hearts, and of our stinginess and 
of our prodigality. A man walks down street and says, 
I don't believe in giving to that begging church, but will 
reach into his pocket and spend ten dollars of God's 
money in a saloon. He has no right to do it. It is God's 
gold. You are responsible for every dollar that God has 
placed in your hands, and when He calls for a worthy 
cause He is calling for His own. We can read the old 
poem, "Over the hills to the poorhouse," with tears rolling 
down over our faces, and then we can go and laugh and 
have a jolly time begging for the people to come in and 
eat soup for God's sake. There you have the picture of 
the human race, the man that is constantly needing to 
be directed by the Word of the eternal God. 

Some are worse than a theater. I am speaking now 
of those suppers that are to be condemned. Some are 
actually worse than a theater. Out in Indiana when the 
young people wanted to get an altar for the church, what 



ARE CHURCH SUPPERS RIGHT? 875 

did they do? They got up an entertainment at the opera 
house, blackened their faces, and acted as minstrels, to 
get an altar to celebrate the Lord's Supper. Think of it I 
If I want to go to a show I will go to a theater. I 
never saw a church yet that could give as good a show 
as a theater. I am not speaking about instructive lessons. 
If you will go and hear Mrs. Monroe give "Cromwell,'' 
or "Luther," you Avill learn something that you cannot 
get anywhere else; but whenever we find suppers that 
are gotten up simply for the sake of having a whole lot 
of fun in order to help our poor God along, I say they 
are worse than any theater. Just think of professed 
Christians having tea meetings, bazaars, concerts, kiss- 
ing parties, voting lotteries, dumb socials, neck-tie 
parties, and all sorts of schemes to raise money for our 
poor God, and then hypocritically singing in church the 
next Sunday: 

"Were the whole realm of nature mine, 
That were a tribute far too small ; 
Love so amazing, so divine, 

Demands my soul, my life, my all." 

The miserable hypocrites ! Those suppers are not 
right and every sensible man knows they are not right. 

Some suppers lead to irreverence in God's house. 
That should be condemned by every true Christian. If 
I were to lead a stranger, blind-folded, into my study, 
during any service, I am sure he would not know from 
the noise in the vestibule that this is the house of God. 
In a church where there are no entertainments for pleas- 
ure and no church suppers, you will find that the people 
reverence that house as God's house, but when people 
are allowed to act as in a theater in the basement, you 
may expect them to act the same in the auditorium. The 
result is that this house has not had the reverence it 
should have had by many people. Yet we thank God 
for the wonderful improvement. 

2. Are any church suppers right? 

I am sure that Supper was right up in yonder little 
room when Jesus Christ said in the night in Avhich He 



876 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

was betrayed, ^'Take eat, this is My body which was 
given for you. This do in remembrance of Me. Take, 
drink, this is My blood which was shed for you and for 
many for the remission of sins. This do as oft as ye 
drink it in remembrance of Me." No question ever arose 
in all the world, my friends, whether it is right to have 
the Lord's Holy Supper or not. That is right. 

The Lord's beneficent supper is all right. If you 
will read Matt. 12:4 and compare that with I Sam. 21:6, 
you will find that there are sometimes occasions w^hen 
we can eat a supper in a church that is all right. They 
criticized the Lord Jesus on that occasion. Why, He said, 
did you never hear the story of David, how he went to 
Ahimelech, and even went into the holy place and begged 
fori five loaves of bread off of that table that he might 
eat, and he ate it Avith God's blessings? Have you not 
heard time and again how the Lord Jesus Christ fed the 
four thousand and the ^Ye thousand ; and do we not know 
that wherever we are assembled with the Lord Jesus 
Christ there is the church? Have you not read how even 
after the morning of Christ's resurrection, walking along 
the sea shore He stopped and fried a little fish and called 
for His disciples to come and eat with Him. There are 
beneficent suppers that the church of God can give with 
His blessing. In Philadelphia and in New York there 
are churches that have established missions where they 
feed the poor hungry tramp, and give him a good meal, 
and then invite him back into the chapel to hear God's 
Word. No man on earth ever asked the question, Is 
that right? It is right. And I am inclined to think that 
if the First Lutheran Church of Mansfield, Ohio, would 
go and establish a supper place in God's name and say, 
Now here, you poor drunken sot, instead of going to the 
saloon come here and get a bite to eat and a cup of 
coffee for a cent, we would have more prosperity in our 
spiritual matters. Those are beneficent suppers and they 
are right, but they are not gotten up for the purpose of 
making money. 

And then there is one other kind of supper in the 
church of God that is right, and that is the Lord's social 



ARE CHURCH SUPPERS RIGHT? 877 

supper. How often the Lord Jesus Christ went up to 
Mary, and Martha, and Lazarus, and ate with them. Any 
question about that? That was a social supper. And 
do you remember how He went into the house of Simon 
the leper just a few days before His crucifixion and ate 
there with His friends? There is one thing we do not 
know about that supper; Ave do not know Avhat the menu 
Avas; we don't know whether they had bread or not; we 
don't know whether they had more than one article. Just 
before the Lord's supper when Judas was to hetraj Christ 
AA^e would gather the inference there was only one dish on 
the table, a A^ery simple little supper, but one thing that 
we knoAA^ Up at the house of Simon the leper, while 
we do not knoAA^ AA^hat the bill of fare AA^as, Ave do knoAV 
Avhat the collection Avas. Mary came in and anointed the 
SaAdor Avith ointment that cost her three hundred pence, 
and in those days a day's labor, according to the parable, 
was a pence, and three hundred pence meant for her 
three hundred days of earning, and, counting the Sabbath 
out, she gave just about the Avages of one year's work to 
the Lord Jesus there in that little supper. That was a 
free will offering, and that Avas right. 

And I would call your attention to the fact that 
when the Lord Jesus Christ arose from the dead, and 
they were trying to find Him and could not, two men 
were walking the distance of scA^en miles up to Emmaus, 
and all at once they find a third man at their side, and 
they were talking about that wonderful transaction up 
at Jerusalem, AA^hen this Stranger began to talk to them 
and they felt a burning about their hearts, they felt the 
Divine presence, and as they came to the doorway, and 
night was coming on, they said. Come in and abide with 
us; He went and they sat down to supper Avhere there 
was some bread, and He began to bless that bread, when 
Lo, and behold! they saw that the hands that were bless- 
ing the bread had holes in them, and they discovered it 
was Jesus. — Jesus, at a social supper, and Oh, what a 
blessing! And all at once He is not there, and those tAvo 
tired traA^elers Avent back all the wav those seven miles 



878 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

to Jerusalem, and said, Did not our hearts burn within 
us while we were talking with Him by the way? and a 
few moments more and Jesus was back there in the midst 
of His disciples saying. Peace be unto you. He had had 
a beautiful supper that night. That was the church, 
where Jesus and those two young men were gathered to- 
gether. 

Now, what shall I say tonight in conclusion? I thank 
my God that on next Wednesday evening the Earnest 
Workers of this church have resolved to try what I call 
God's plan; they are going to have a good social where 
we can come together and shake hands and get acquainted, 
and I believe they intend to give a little something to eat, 
but I do not care whether they do or not, and if I knew^ 
that any of you were coming there only to eat, I would 
say, stay at home and worship your stomach at home; 
but if there are those here who would love to come to 
learn to know each other, and love to take part in singing 
a hymn of praise to God, who love to listen to a prayer 
or two, and who love to bring a gift — a free will gift, 
and expect nothing for it — that is God's plan. That 
is right and everybody knows it. Amen. 

PRAYER. 

O God, our heavenly Father, we ask Thy divine blessing to rest 
upon all the organizations of this great church of Thine. We pray Thee, 
O Father in heaven, to give wisdom from on high, not only to the 
present pastor of this church, but to every pastor who shall ever be 
called here. O Lord our God, do Thou help that every soul in this 
house may be thoroughly convinced of the truth of Thy Word and its 
position on this great question. We pray Thee, our Father in heaven, 
that Thou wilt give a special blessing to the Missionary Society, to the 
Earnest Workers Society, to the Sunday School and to the Home De- 
partment, and to all the young people in their work, and to every de- 
partment that is trying to extend Thy kingdom here on earth. And 
now we pray Thee that Thou wilt put it into the hearts of all these 
people to bring a free will offering even as the people did in the days 
of Moses when they built the tabernacle, until Moses had to say, Stop 
bringing; you are bringing too much. O Father in heaven, these dear 
women have been working hard all the days of their lives, and espe- 
cially in this church, for the upbuilding of this Thy temple, and now 
we pray Thee, O God. that Thou wilt bless them on Wednesday evening 
when they come together for the purpose of carrying out Thy design 



ARE CHURCH SUPPERS RIGHT? 879 

and Thy holy will. O Father in heaven, do Thou continue to show us 
the right in every question that may come up, and so lead us that there 
can be no question at all about those things that we are about to do. 
O give Thy blessing to those that shall receive this message outside of 
this house of God, and to the hand that has made it possible. We ask 
this in Jesus' name, who taught us to pray: 

Our Father who art in heaven ; Hallowed be Thy name ; Thy 
kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven; Give 
us this day our daily bread ; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation; 
But deliver us from evil ; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



Note. 

Since this sermon has been preached the suppers have all been 
banished from this church by the ladies themselves and the congrega- 
tion has never prospered more in every way than the last year. 

S. P. Long, Pastor. 



THE GREATEST REFORMATION. 
Acts 16:9, 10. 

HND a vision appeared to Paul in the night. There stood a man of 
Macedonia, and prayed unto him, saying, Come over into Mace- 
donia and help us. And after he had seen the vision, immedi- 
ately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the 
Lord had called us for to preach the Gospel unto them. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth : 
Thy Word is truth. Amen. 



Beloved in Christ: 

As long as the world stands it will be necessary to 
have reformations. Sin has come into the world, has 
made man, created holy and in the image of God, an 
enemy; and even now, since we have become Christians, 
we are still dwelling in the body, and it is still natural 
for even Christians to be weak, and go along blind to 
their highest duty. So I repeat it, as long as the world 
stands, there will be great necessity for reformation. 
There have been great reformations all along the line of 
history. It was a great reformation when the Lord God 
taught the first parents to offer sacrifice. It was a great 
reformation in the days of Noah, when for one hundred 
and twenty years that man of God warned the people and 
told them to repent. And at last their sins and stub- 
bornness were answered with the great deluge. It was 
a great reformation in the days of Hezekiah, when the 
people were worshipping the very brazen serpent that 
Moses had placed up to heal those that were bitten by 
serpents, when he broke down the false gods and estab- 
lished the true religion. It was a great reformation in 
the days of Ahab, when Elijah after spending three years 
and more with God all alone, came up to the top of Mount 

880 



THE GKEATEST REFORMATION. 881 

Carmel, aud in the presence of four hundred and fifty 
false prophets of one order, and four hundred of an- 
other, there called fire down from heaven and established 
the true religion of God. It was a great reformation in 
the days of Christ, when John the Baptist's voice was 
heard along the hills of Judea, and down at the Jordan, 
when he told those supposed-to-be leaders of the Church 
of God that they were vipers, and should return to the 
true and living God. That was a great reformation in 
the days of the apostle Paul Avhen he was called over into 
Europe by the voice that said : Come over into Macedonia 
and help us ! It was a great reformation in the days of Dr. 
Martin Luther, Avhen lie nailed tlie ninety-five theses on the 
door of "The Cliurch of All Saints'' at Wittenberg. Next 
Wednesday it will have been three hundred and eighty - 
nine years since the sound of that hammer was heard. 
And he drove the nails in well that held those theses, 
that have given liberty and freedom to the nations of the 
earth. But, my friends, let us not for a moment imagine 
that the reformations are all past. As the years are 
becoming more and more progressive toward the end, it 
is becoming more and more necessary that the Church , 
of God waken up and reform the world. I call your 
attention this morning, not to the "Great Eeformation" 
as we heard from the mouth of another last Sunday, 
but to 

THE GREATEST REFORMATION. 

May the Holy Spirit enlighten our hearts and minds 
to-day to enjoy the blessings of God's Word, and the 
power of the Holy Spirit Himself. You Avill please notice 

I. The curse it feels. 
II. The course it follows. 

I. The Greatest Reformation, of which I speak this 
evening, feels the curse: 

1. Of no religion. Let us not forget that Satan is 
still in our midst, and if he can possibly make people be- 
lieve that they need no religion whatever, he has gained 
his first victory ; and as Ave look around us in the present 

*56 



882 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

day we are compelled to admit that the most of the people 
have no religion whatever. We have been told by his- 
torians that there never was and never will be a nation 
on earth that has no religion, and I suppose, as far as a 
nation is concerned, this is true, but there are people in 
every nation that have no religion. When a man lives 
according to the cry and voice of his own lust; when a 
man has no care whatever whether his family are Chris- 
tians or not; when a man does not look into the Bible 
from one end of the week to the other; when a man has 
no family altar in his home; when a man does not care 
whether his children are baptized or not; when a man 
never goes to the Lord's Supper; when a man has all 
his money to spend for the devil and the world and noth- 
ing for the Church of God; when a man scoffs at every- 
thing that is good and holy, and lives like an ox, eats 
like an ox and sleeps like an ox, and dies like an ox, 
pray tell me, where is his religion? In this enlightened 
age, when the printing press is sending forth its message 
day and night, there is no excuse for any man not to have 
religion; and consequently, if there ever was a time in 
the world when we ought to feel the awful curse of no 
religion, it is now. 

2. But even Satan with all his power, cannot per- 
suade some Satanic people that they should have no re- 
ligion. When, therefore, a man stops and thinks just a 
few moments, and begins to say. Where there is a thing 
made there is a Maker, and where there is a creature 
there is a Creator, and I am made a little different than 
the lower animals ; I am not an ox ; I am not an irrational 
animal* I must worship something; then Satan comes 
to him and saj^s. You are right. You are right. You 
ought to worship something; but, notice well, if you 
want to be a happy man in this world, you have got to 
be a man of perfect freedom; if you want to follow the 
voice of lust you want to follow it ; if you feel like getting 
drunk, you want to get drunk; if you want to cheat and 
get along better, then cheat. Now, I will make a sug- 
gestion to you. You ought to have a god, but be sure 
that you have got a god that has no eyes to see and no 



THE GREATEST REFORMATION. 883 

ears to hear, and no mind to think, and take those gods 
and set them up in your home on the mantle, and if they 
are made of gold, put them in the bank and lock them 
up, and then when you leave home, and leave your bank 
account, you can go out into the world and live the same 
damnable life that you lived before, and your gods don't 
hear it, your gods don't see it, and you can live right 
on in this world. This world to-daj^ is crowded with 
hundreds and thousands of men and women who do not 
want to live right, and who are obeying the voice of 
Satan, too religious for no religion, but give us an un- 
known god — Idolatr}^ 

3. But some men are entirely too bright and too 
conscientious to worship a god with no eyes to see and 
no ears to hear and no mind to think, so they say, We 
want to belong to church ; we want the Bible in our homes, 
and we want to be classified as Christians. If the devil 
knows he cannot get those ideas out of their heads, he 
will say : You are right. You are right. But I Avill tell 
you what you must not forget. You must not forget 
that you have got a head of your own; and you must 
not forget that anything that is contrary to your reason 
is wrong, and anything that is above your reason can- 
not be right. And so he tells a half truth — the most 
dangerous truth in the world — and the falsehood of the 
devil in this lies in these words, that whatever is above 
your reason cannot be true. Then he sa^^s to this one: 
Now, go and read this Bible, and hear it. It tells you 
that God made light with His Word. That is above your 
reason; that cannot be truth. It tells you that a virgin 
shall conceive and bear a son and shall call His name 
Emmanuel. That is above reason; that cannot be truth. 
Here and there you read that those that were dead were 
raised from their graves. That is above reason; that 
cannot be true. Here it teaches you that there is only one 
God, and yet there are three persons; the Father is God, 
and the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God; three 
persons, only one God; each person God. That is above 
reason. That cannot be true. And thus he goes on. 
Here vou will find a certain verse in the Bible that must 



884 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

be God's Word, but here are others that cannot be. And 
the first thing you know, he has got a certain class of 
professed Christians in the world that will not accept a 
truth here, and a truth there entirely. When those same 
people come to Satan and say. Which Word is true? he 
says, I will tell you that in your dying hour. Do not 
accept the whole Bible. And then in his dying hour, 
when that man feels the weight of his sins, and feels the 
curse of God resting on him, he finally tries to find his 
comfort in these words which he knows must be true : 
"The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from 
all sin'- and then the devil whispers in his ear in the 
last moment. That is one of the verses that is not God's 
Word. That is above reason; that is not true. And 
without any faith in God, that man leaps into eternity, 
— ^lost forever! He had a religion; he belonged to church; 
but he is one of the thousands that are clinging to false 
doctrines. And in this age of enlightenment, in this age 
'Of intelligence, there is no reason for am^ man not know- 
ing what God's Word does teach concerning Holy Bap- 
tism, concerning the Lord's Supper, concerning the 
Office of the Keys, and all the vital, saving doctrines of 
the Word. And if there ever was a time when there was 
a need — a great need — of the greatest reformation, it 
is now. 

4. Not only is it true that some people will cling 
to false doctrines, but it is also true that many people 
want to be in a worldly church. What made the Church 
of Kome so corrupt? It was the fact that they did not 
cling to the truth which Paul taught them when he went 
over to Macedonia. Paul was the first missionary that 
entered Europe. The first woman that was converted 
opened the door for the Gospel to enter that great country, 
and finally to us. In those days they all knew the truth 
-concerning justification by faith. They heard from the 
apostle Paul the great Lutheran doctrine, and the great 
apostolic doctrine of the Lord's Supper. They heard in 
those days the wonderful doctrine from Paul, of regenera- 
tion by water and the Spirit. They heard in those days 
the truth concerning all the vital doctrines of the Church 



THE GREATEST REFORMATION. 885 

of God. But in those days the Church of God grew 
worldly. The Church of God said: We have got to win 
the powers of Egypt and Europe. If we give in a little 
on this point, and a little on that point, we shall soon 
have the whole world in the church. And then, when they 
laid the foundation for St. Peter's, and they could not 
raise enough money, it was suggested that they should 
sell the forgiveness of sins to people. Oh, the world said, 
That is what we want. I am willing to pay for it if I 
can sin. I am willing to pay big sums if I can have for- 
giveness and peace of conscience. And then they sent out 
Mr. Tetzel to sell forgiveness of sins to the people — so 
many sins for a goose; so many sins for a duck; so many 
sins for a pound of butter; so many sins for a dollar; 
and if people have died in their sins pray them out of 
purgatory for so many dollars ; bringing in Paganism and 
uniting it with the Church, and instead of the Church 
reforming the world, the world deformed the Church. 
And in the days of Luther few found peace in justi- 
fication ; few had the Bible ; the Word of God was in 
the dark, hidden away, tied with chains; in those days 
no man had books or magazines to read; men were con- 
sidered powerful for the church if kept in ignorance and 
darkness; no public schools. Then priests began to take 
the Pagan religion and mixed it with the Christian re- 
ligion until the Church of God was lost in darkness. Oh, 
my dear friends, we are, to a certain extent, feeling the 
curse to-day of the worldly church. I will refer you in 
a few moments to what Dr. Luther did to bring the church 
out in her purity in those great days of God in the six- 
teenth century. But let us beware that we do not bring^ 
the church back to the world again. 

A great man has recently said that today the church 
is worldly, and the world is churchly. That is just ex- 
actly what happened in the Middle Ages. There are few 
people today in the church that want to be downright 
Christians. • There are few people today in the church of 
God that are setting an example that helps me, and you 
parents to raise your children rightly. When our boys 
go into dark hell-holes of saloons they find church mem- 



886 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

bers at the bar. When our girls sneak up to Hawkins' 
dancing hall, they find good church members sitting 
around there, with their daughters on the dancing floor. I 
am here to make the statement this evening, and I need 
not recall it, that there is not a work so low, or so mean, 
or so damnable, in the city of Mansfield, that you cannot 
find some church members to defend it. If there ever was 
a time, with all the enlightenment of the present century, 
that we needed the greatest reformation, it is now. I will 
tell you right here that if the professed Christians of my 
church were all consistent, we would move Mansfield. 
But just as long as you try to be one thing on Sunday, and 
something else through the week; just as long as you will 
stand in the prayer meeting one evening, and on the danc- 
ing floor the next; just as long as you are as worldly as 
the most worldly man can be, you are making the world 
churchly, and the church Avorldly, and somebody ought 
to feel the awful curse. 

5. There is another thing that we should feel in the 
present day, if we want the greatest reformation, and that 
is the inactivity of the Christian. If Adam were living 
in the world today, he would have learned more of the 
material progress of this world in the last seventy-five 
years, than he learned in all the balance of his life. On 
the 31st day of October, 1517, when Dr. Luther nailed 
the ninety-five theses on the door of the Wittenberg 
church, the printing press and the discovery of paper 
made of rags, were all in the hands of God to be discovered 
at the same time, to unite, for the great freedom and the 
great liberty which you today enjoy. On that morning, 
three hundred and eighty-nine years ago, there was no 
steam railroad ; no telegraph wire ; no telephone message ; 
no electric light. Those tuere the end of the great Middle 
Ages, the beginning of the great era of progress; and as 
the world is moving on in time, the material progress is 
increasing — and what about the church? The Church of 
God is not keeping pace. The Church of God is not try- 
ing to make the progress that the material world is, and 
consequently we are feeling today the curse of an inactiv- 
ity on the part of those who still hold to the true faith. 



THE GREATEST REFORMATION. 887 

It does seem to me that if these things are true which we 
confess in the Apostles' Creed, then every Christian ought 
to live, and give, and pray, for the salvation of the world. 
How the Christian Church of today can hold its billions 
of God's gold and refuse to send the young men, who are 
ready to say, Here am I ; send me, as Paul went to Mace- 
donia — I say, how all these men can hold back their 
gold and profess to love God, is something that I cannot 
understand. Let the Christian Church of today waken up. 
Let her feel her responsibility for the salvation of every 
lost man, woman, and child. This, my friends, is the curse 
that the greatest reformation feels. 

II. Now let us notice the course it follows : Every 
reformation began with the Word of God. In the days of 
Noah it was the message of God that sent him out to de- 
clare that He would have patience for one hundred and 
twenty years yet. In the days of Elijah it was the Word 
of God that had to settle the matter on Mount Carmel. In 
the days of John the Baptist it was the Word of God that 
he proclaimed along the Jordan. In the days of the apos- 
tle Paul it was the voice of God that said. Come over into 
Macedonia and help us. In the days of Dr. Luther it was 
the Word of God that started the Eeformation. In those 
days all that the people knew of the Word of God Avas 
what you find indicated in your hymn-book — the Gospel 
and Epistolary lessons for the church year. Luther at 
the age of eighteen, straying through the library at Erfurt, 
never dreamed there was such a thing as a Bible, and when 
he found the chain and followed it to the old Book, and 
pulled it down, and saw written on it, "Biblia Sacra," he 
had no idea there was anything within those lids except 
these Gospel lessons and the epistolary lessons. When he 
opened that Book, had it opened at a page Avhere a Gospel 
lesson was found, he might have closed it up and never 
read it, and there would be no Reformation yet. It was 
not an accident, it was the finger of God, that opened that 
Book at the story of Hannah and her little boy, Samuel, 
and the young student of Erfurt never knew that there 
was such a thing in the Bible, and his curiosity was 
aroused; he laid the Book down, and by the candle light 



888 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

read it day and night, and lie came to the great truth : 
The just shall liye by his faith ! A new light dawned upon 
his soul. He compared the teaching of that Biblia Sacra 
— the Holy Bible — with the teachings of Kome, and he 
said, If this be true, the teachings of Eome are false. And 
yet he wanted peace. He was an honest young man. He 
sought for the truth. It is hard to get rid of what you 
learn when you are a little child. And so, in order to set- 
tle the question, he went down to Kome. He was told 
that if he would take excursions, and climb up the stair- 
way of Pilate on his knees, he would get the forgiveness 
of sins ; and Avhile climbing up that stairway on his knees, 
there flashed into his mind that verse of the Bible: The 
just shall liA^e by his faith! And he said, This is non- 
sense. I don't get forgiveness of sins by climbing around 
on my knees, nor by my own good works. I will go home, 
and I will shake Kome! There was kindled in his heart 
that day the certain truth of not only the Lutheran 
Church, but of every Protestant Church that shall stand. 
For any church that is not in the clear on the doctrine of 
justification by faith, can never stand. And so he said, 
I am going to teach God's Word. Kome says that we shall 
worship the saints, but I found in the Bible, "Thou shalt 
love the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve." 
Kome said. The common people are not to have the Bible ; 
but the Word of God says : '^ Search the Scriptures, for 
in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they 
which testify of Me." And so, the first opportunity he 
had, he made the old Greek and Hebrew Bible talk Ger- 
man, and those German leaves, like angels' wings, flew all 
over Europe, and the people read the Word of God. Kome 
taught that the laymen did not need the blood in the 
Lord's Supper; but Luther found that the Bible said: 
"Drink ye all of it." Kome says that we are saved by our 
ow^n good works, and by our crusades, and by our owm 
efforts, but the Bible says : "Wherefore we conclude that 
a man is justified by faith, without the deeds of the law." 
And so the great Keformation of the sixteenth century 
was begun with the Word of God as the only rule and form 
for salvation. 



THE GREATEST REFORMATION. 889 

And SO it has got to be in the greatest Reformation. 
We have got to get away from our public libraries, ninety 
per cent, of which is not fit to read; away from our Sun- 
day newspapers; away from much of the trash that is 
lying around in our homes, and put the Bible forward 
again, and the good Word of God, and the catechism; 
drill your children in the fundamental truths of God's 
Word, if you ever want to have the right kind of a refor- 
mation. 

2. Then I would call your attention to this, that the 
course of this greatest reformation is to waken up a man. 
Whenever God wanted to do any great work, He always 
began with one man. He began that wonderful reforma- 
tion of the flood, with Noah. He began to convert the 
people of the old country in the days of Elijah, by waking 
up one man. He began the great era of Christ on earth, 
in His ministry, by waking up John the Baptist. He 
began the great Reformation of the sixteenth century by 
going down to a miner's son, a boy that sang on the streets 
for bread, and woke him up to see the truth. And thus 
the great reformation, and the greatest reformations are 
based on the same foundation, the Word of God, dis- 
covered by a man. 

3. The third step in this course is the wakening up 
friends for the man. Noah was not alone. His three sons 
stood by him. Elijah thought he was all alone, but God 
said to him, Elijah, there are seven thousand in Israel 
that have never bent their knees before Baal. John the 
Baptist is not alone. Christ calls His disciples; wakens 
up a Paul, who is to open the door through Macedonia 
to Europe. Dr. Luther was not alone. Kings on their 
thrones. Emperors, Electors, Dukes, well bred men, suf- 
fering Europe, all cried in their misery : O God, send us 
a man to help us out of this bondage ! And it was not long 
until these mighty men of the church and state said, Lu- 
ther, we will stand by you. Go on ! 

And thus it will be in the greatest reformation. Com- 
bining the great men of the past with the great men of 
the future, God will raise up men. As in politics, so in 
the church. The Christian people all over this land are 



890 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

feeling the necessity of fearless men of God who will tell 
us the truth. I tell you, my friends, that churches as a 
rule are to be pitied for the pulpit cowards that we have 
in the present day. There is a strong cry in the heart of 
every man, no difference if his head and his tongue rebel 
against it — I must have the truth ! We need not fear the 
rattling tongues of men. We need not fear the minds that 
are controlled by lust. The appeal in the greatest refor- 
mation must be made to conscience and to the best thoughts 
of the heart. 

4. You will notice, furthermore, that this greatest 
reformation in its course goes westward. Bishop Berkley 
sang long ago : 

"Westward the course of empire takes its way — 
The first four acts already past; 
A fifth shall close the drama with the day. 
Time's noblest offspring is the last." 

The first four acts of the world's history are past. 
We are living in the last great act, and the last great 
act will bring about the conclusion of the greatest refor- 
mation. Progress has always been, according to God's 
own order, from east to west. It is true a Daniel went 
east, but he went there a captive and told the story of the 
Star of Jacob. The people took the treasure, held to it, 
and when Christ was born in Bethlehem, the wise men 
from the east went west, and found Christ. The Lord God 
called Paul to be a missionary to the heathen. He called 
him from Troas to Macedonia. Paul, go west! When 
Horace Greeley said, "Young man, go west,'' he was speak- 
ing in perfect harmony with Providence. Why is it that 
western nations are always a greater power than those of 
the east? What were our fathers and mothers? They 
were the brawn and brain of Europe; they said. We are 
ready to leave home. They were the progressive people of 
Europe who came over here and became our fathers and 
mothers. Who are the young men and young women 
today of our own western country? They are the boys 
and the girls, that when you said, "Stay at home," said 
"No!" We are going west." And the further west you 



THE GREATEST REFORMATION. 891 

go, the more progress you find, because the lazy people 
stayed at home. 

Now, my friends, this isn't accidental. It is God's 
plan. The Gospel entered Europe at Macedonia; worked 
its way through Europe, and God saw to it that the print- 
ing press, paper made of rags, and the discovery of 
America, were in the same century — saw to it that there 
should be a great land in the west where the persecuted of 
Europe shall go in the days of the Reformation and escape 
the fires of natural flames, and kindle a flame from heaven 
in the great land of America. It is not an accident that 
the great canal across the Isthmus is being built now. It 
is going to make the Pacific the center of the world. It 
is going to open up the Gospel path around to China and 
all the islands. In other words, my friends, you will never 
understand God's Providence and the course of the great- 
est reformation, until you find out that as the sun rises 
in the east, and goes to the west, so the Gospel of Christ 
must come to Macedonia; from Macedonia through 
Europe; from Europe through America; from America 
through the islands of the sea; and the only way to con- 
vert the far east is to come around from the west. And 
when Christ said that the end will not come until the 
Gospel shall be preached to the ends of the world. He 
meant that it must came back from whence it started, and 
then the end shall come. We are living today in the last 
great act of the greatest drama of God. 

5. And when Avill this greatest reformation be fin- 
ished? It will end with the Judgment Day. I am trying 
this morning to lead you into a wider vision than simply 
the Reformation of the sixteenth century. I am trying to 
give you a vision this morning that reaches from the Gar- 
den of Eden to the end of the world. Remember, my 
friends, that great battles are yet to be fought. As we are 
nearing the end of the world, Satan is raging more and 
more. Everything will be done in the next few centuries 
to come to damn the world, that hell can possibly devise. 
On the other hand, God's people must waken up. Right- 
eousness shall prevail. The battle is coming on. It will 
not be long until there will be such an act as there never 



892 THE ETERNAL EPISTLE. 

was before. It will not be long until the waves of the 
great flood in the days of Noah; until the fires that fell 
from heaven in the days of Elijah ; until the mighty power 
that John the Baptist wielded in the days of Christ ; until 
the flames that burned the one hundred and eighty-five 
millions of martyrs in the first three centuries; until the 
great Reformation of the sixteenth century illuminating 
the Dark and Middle Ages ; until all the darkness and the 
light combined today, with its battles upon land and sea; 
until all these things shall be but little scenes in the great 
acts that preceded the act of all acts, when God Almighty 
shall summon His angels, and the Son of God shall com- 
mand the heavens to roll back like a scroll, the stars of 
heaven to fall, the dead to rise; the last assize; when all 
that was ever wrong shall be known, and all that was ever 
right shall be seen ; w^hen the just shall be separated from 
the unjust; the righteous from the unrighteous; the holy 
from the unholy; when heaven shall be heaven complete, 
and hell prepared for the devil and his angels, as hellish 
as it can ever be, then will come the end of the greatest 
reformation, when God shall repeat what He said in His 
Word to John : "He that is unjust, let him be unjust 
still ; and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still ; and he 
that is righteous, let him be righteous still; and he that 
is holy, let him be holy still.-- Amen. 

PRAYER. 

O God of ages, eternal in the heavens, before whom angels bow 
and the^ elders cast their, crowns, we come to Thee this day, thanking Thee 
that we are enjoying the benefits of all the reformations of the past, 
and have in our hands and in our hearts the sword of the Spirit, which 
is the Word of God, to do our part in the great drama of the greatest 
reformation. We pray Thee, Father in heaven. Thou who didst let the 
Gospel into Europe by way of Macedonia, with the first conversion of 
a woman, do Thou bless the women of our church and country, and 
help that they may dc more for the spreading of Thy kingdom. We 
pray Thee to bless all our missionary societies ; help them to kindle a 
flame in the hearts of all people to spread the Gospel of Christ to the 
ends of the earth. Oh, do Thou give to the Church of God, mighty 
men of God, like Luther, arid Paul, and John the Baptist, and Elijah, 
and Hezekiah, who shall do all that they possibly can to break down 
the idols and to establish the true worship of the true and living God. 



THE GREATEST REFORMATION. 893 

We thank Thee for all our schools and churches, and we pray to Thee 
that Thou wilt give us teachers who love Thy Word and the Bride for 
whom Thou hast laid down Thy life, O Christ ! We pray Thee that 
Thou wilt help us to appreciate Thy Hand, which moves day and night 
for the salvation of the world. O Lord God, when our voices are 
silent, and our children are no more on earth, help that childrens' chil- 
dren may be wakened up to perform their duties well for the glory of 
Thy Church and the honor of Thy name. Hear this prayer; we ask it 
in the name of Jesus, who taught us to pray: 

Our Father who art in heaven; Hallowed be Thy name; Thy 
kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven; Give 
us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give those who trespass against us ; And lead us not into temptation ; 
But deliver us from evil; For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, 
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 



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